Bangalore, November 19:

Despite being a country of over a billion strong, the Indian manufacturing and services industries is expected to face a manpower shortage, especially in finding the right person for the right job, in the next few years.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) estimates a booming economy — with about eight per cent GDP growth annually — will require about 16-20 million workforce in the organised sector over the next 10 years to sustain the current high growth rate.

A study, presented at the 14th CII quality summit here, has revealed that of the existing 8.5 million workforce in the organised sector, about 30 per cent will retire in the next five years.

“Inequity in the demand-supply of manpower will persist in diverse industry verticals such as IT, retail, banking, manufacturing, logistics, infrastructure and management due to lack of quality workforce, absence of vocational training and job-hopping,” said Anand Sudarshan, Manipal Universal Learning Ltd president.

Participating in the plenary session yesterday on ‘Building a learning organisation and bridging the talent gap’, Sudarshan said.