The Evolving Nature of the Scenario of Jobs in Durgapur and Its Impact

A decade or two ago, the only job in Durgapur, which had any value, was that of Durgapur Steel Plant, a SAIL operated steel plant. The new pass outs of the city had little or no option. They either had to wait, sometimes years to get through to SAIL. The process was arduous and sometimes the wait for employment was unfruitful. Or they had to shift base to other cities for gainful employment. This meant leaving behind their hometown, families, friends and memories. This has changed considerably with more generation of jobs in Durgapur.

Jobs in Durgapur have been possible because of the growth and development of IT/BPO sector in the city. A few years back this sector was flourishing in Kolkata. But now with all the major corporate and non corporate setting up their camp in Kolkata, the metropolitan have become saturated. For years, people pursuing a career in IT sector sought out employment in Kolkata. People from all over West Bengal flocked to Kolkata for their bread and butter, which have slowly resulted in the saturation of the job market there. Hence, in recent years the availability of jobs in Kolkata has drastically gone down.

In contrast, Durgapur has grown in this regard. Many major corporate houses, from retail, IT/ BPO. Telecom, Food and beverage, FMCG have shifted their offices from Kolkata to Durgapur, or have opened their zonal/ regional offices in the city. This shift has been possible because of certain factors like the availability of space, infrastructure, skilled and unskilled labor, cost effective setup, etc. All these together has brought about a boom in the availability of jobs in Durgapur. Now the companies that have started their operations in the city, can employ a workforce of their choice. The new graduates, as well as the people who had left the city are getting opportunities, which was not there, even a few years back.

It has been noted that a great contribution in this boom has been that of the IT/BPO sector. The contributing factor to this is the number of engineering and mechanical colleges that dots the city. The most notable among those being the National Institute of Technology. So, each year there are hundreds of brilliant students who are getting job ready from these institutes, who have an extensive IT curriculum. The new generation, notably is drawn to this line of study as in todays world, everything has become internet related and the W3C dominates our daily life. Hence the companies that are mushrooming in Durgapur has easy access to skilled Freshers. Also the new pass outs have the unique opportunity to stay back in their beloved hometown and make a positive career growth with jobs in Durgapur.

Author Bio: Thomas Wright who has written this article is an IT professional who has done extensive research on growth of jobs in Durgapur area, and currently working in a leading software company.