Job market in India is facing a little bit of a slow down. A recent survey conducted by Manpower Group (Employment Outlook Survey) has indicated that only 13% of employers plan to hire in the July-September quarter. This figure is about 4% less as compared to the same quarter’s figure last year. 61% of employers have stated that there would be no change in their employee muster. Fortunately there is no indication of a decrease in the number of employees taking place in the current quarter. So overall the hiring landscape in India will remain steady this quarter.
Job situation in India
Another survey conducted by Genius consultants (8th Hiring, Attrition and Compensation Survey) has indicated that the services sector, including the healthcare sector will be the provider of much of the job growth this quarter (around 16%), mining and construction, wholesale and retail trade and manufacturing together will account for about 11% of the employment in the current quarter. On the whole, new hiring will happen in the south and the west of the country more than the other regions.
E-commerce companies and startups are in a recruitment overdrive. Employees and experts having knowledge and experience in technology and supply chain management are in great demand. These experts are needed for scaling up and to provide a strong business backbone for these ventures. Consequently, the demand for these professionals is sky high and is pushing up the compensation levels. Talent that e-commerce companies need is in short supply in the job market. Even entry level salaries are rising (around 23000 to 28000) in these companies. According to an estimate, e-commerce companies like Swiggy, Oyo, Byju’s and Zomato will be adding close to 44000 jobs in the period April to September 2019. What is pushing this increase in employee numbers in these companies? The reason is simple. Brands are becoming larger and more important, leading to mergers and acquisitions. Also, capital infusion from private equity and venture capitalists is helping the e-commerce companies to further scale up, needing a bigger workforce. A NASSCOM-PWC report indicates that this sector will grow at 25% in the next 5 years.
This scenario in the job market in India currently is making HR of these companies to look for talent globally also, as in India, as stated above, employees with requisite skill sets are in short supply.
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Job creation in India
India, like the rest of the world is seeing vast changes in the recruitment and HR spheres. Latest trends like diversity, AI, virtual reality and remote working are driving these changes. Automation is happening at a fast pace in HR and recruitment fields. Apart from the challenge thrown by these factors, Indian employers are grappling with another issue. More than a million graduates emerge from Indian universities every year. Unfortunately, most of them are unemployable. Coupled with this is the fact that unemployment in India is increasing due to thousands of jobs disappearing on account of technological changes and advances.
To overcome the problem of unemployability, the government of India has started programs about skill development in right earnest. Much more needs to be done. Employers in India would do well to invest significantly in training and education of Indian workforce to remove the skill gap between the requirements of the job market and incumbent employees skills. Companies and entrepreneurs also need to engage with the government to bring about employment friendly policy changes that are required for job creation in a big way.
Conclusion
The job market in India in the April-September 2019 period is stable overall. New age e-commerce companies are recruiting in a big way. There are job losses in the traditional job market. Employers, entrepreneurs and the government need to work together for reskilling employees that are losing their jobs and to make new graduates employment worthy. Creation of well paying jobs for a majority of people in the working group in the country will push the economy into a robust, growing economy.
References:
- Only 13% of Indian employers have hiring plans for July-September 2019, June 11, 2019
- Hiring activity to be positive this fiscal, June 4, 2019
