NEW DELHI: Polarisation of the labour marketis deepening amid rising wage inequality and this trend islikely to continue as demand for niche skills is only going toincrease in coming years, say experts.

According to HR experts, there is high unemploymentalongside unfilled jobs and at the same time low-skill or notso niche skill jobs are continuously being automated thusleaving the once employed, unemployed with no much future.

"The demand for niche skills and upcoming technologies isonly going to increase in the coming 10 years, and is areality in the Indian marketplace today," SHRM India SeniorKnowledge Advisor Dedeepya John said.

Matt Krentz, Senior Partner and Managing Director at theBoston Consulting Group's Chicago office also believes "astechnology is increasingly applied to increase productivity,those without the relevant skills and technologies will findit difficult to move beyond low wage jobs".

According to a recent ManpowerGroups report, though newways of working are emerging, yet inequality and skills gap iswidening. The noted, there is high unemployment alongsideunfilled jobs, rising productivity with stagnant wages, andeconomic recovery with declining upward mobility for many.

Prashant Bhatnagar, VP-Hiring and Staffing, SapientNitroIndia said organisations are having to make up for skills gapby implementing stringent hiring processes followed byelaborate capability building programmes.

At the entry level, organisations invest anywhere fromfour weeks up to a year in all round development. Besidescompany specific orientation programmes, this includes corefunctional training and soft skills, Bhatnagar said.

Commenting on this trend, HCL Technologies Global Head,People Practices R Anand said this practice (pay difference)was always there and earlier it used to be based onresponsibility level, now it is based on skill level.

Regarding the relation with skill and pay, he said thatthe level of responsibility is one of the dimension, while theniche-ness of the skill is the second dimension, proficiencyin the skill is the third dimension and performance on the jobis the fourth dimension.

Over a period of time the dimension of skill will have ahigher weightage, he added.

"With greater automation coming in, the ones not beingable to constantly upgrade their skills will find it hard tofind a place in the modern workplace," Artanddecors.comFounder and CEO Divyan Gupta said.

Organisations are trying their best to enhance the skillset of their workforce. That includes mentoring and coachingfor employees/ future employees on what to learn to keepthemselves employable.

Kanupriya Sekhri AVP - Strategic Initiatives School OfInspired Leadership, said "while government and public privatepartnership NSDC are supporting several initiatives on theskilling front, the corporate sector has also stepped up theirinvolvement to upskill their existing workforce". PTI DRR MRABM

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