According to manpower employment outlook survey, it has reported that in 2013, India has weakest hiring outlook in the Asia Pacific in the past eight years. Although 2013 comes to end and experts believe worst may be over on hiring front thus Human resource professionals needs to know what 2014 is going to bring, with that employees can even look forward to double digit hike.
The sectors that are likely to drive the job market include IT, healthcare, education, development sector moreover the new retail banking licenses are also expected to give a decent hiring trend in year 2014. The hiring in agriculture sector is expected to boom in 2014 as agriculture sector is increasing at a growth of 100% (2% in 2013 and expected at 4% in 2014).?Some more hiring zones which need to be watched, especially for mid and senior level hiring would be Start Up?s. While e-commerce start ups may continue to explore their way to break even, we may see further consolidation in the sector thus not resulting in much job growth, however overall Start Up genre would create good no. of jobs in 2014. It is expected manufacturing to chip in as well towards the end of 2014 with its share of new job offerings.It is also regarded that India is a logical business hub with well qualified young and dedicated work force and regards to demand for talent the report forecasts an increase in demand at the middle management level across all sectors. Cutting back on hiring entry- and junior-level staff, Indian companies are increasingly looking to hire experienced professionals who would hit the ground running from day one
Seeing the past scenario, India over the last two years has actually gone through a phase of policy paralysis on account of unearthing of too many scams. The sentiment further got dampened with low growth, high inflation; high interest rates etc. etc., thus creating an environment of pessimism. This led to a belief that govt. is not serious about growth and businesses stopped investing in new projects or held back their expansion plans. These resulted in no new jobs being created and delay in appointment of replacement positions especially in non-core areas of a business. While finance minister has been trying to fix issues in the economy by controlling the current account deficit, fiscal deficit and RBI governor trying to rein in inflation, some of the decisions by govt. have started showing signs of improvement. The Indian economy is believed to have bottomed out with a few green shoots of recovery visible here and there. Though 8% plus growth might take some more time, experts believe going forward Indian economy will start moving again towards high growth regime, thus re-instating business confidence.
It is also believed, post general elections in April / May 2014, the Indian economy may enter into a new phase of growth with India unleashing its full potential. Indian businesses are also holding lot of cash waiting on the side lines for an opportunity and right business environment to invest.
If all pieces of the puzzle fall in right places and a business friendly growth oriented govt. takes over at the centre, India is bound to start a new journey of high growth era resulting in lot of economic activity and new jobs creations.
If Rupee remains at current levels of exchange rate, export oriented sectors where India has lost its edge to countries like Bangladesh, Philippines; Indonesia etc. too could become more competitive. Export sectors like garment, handicrafts, yarn, and pharmaceutical etc. has huge potential of generating good no. of jobs. In addition, many BPO businesses lost to other Asian countries can come back to India thus resulting in huge employment opportunities.
Looking through the prism of above mentioned facts, year 2014 at the beginning looks like glass half full and half empty with lots and lots of opportunities to fill the glass completely through the year. Year 2014 seems to begin with lot of promises, optimism and opportunities, however it remains to be seen how our electorate votes in general elections and which govt. takes the centre stage.? My sense says whichever party or combination?forms the govt. in Delhi; stimulating growth will remain top priority for the incumbent govt. thus resulting in high volume of new jobs creation.
By Premlesh Machama, MD, CareerBuilder India.
NOTE: The views expressed are those of the author
