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INDIA: After the layoffs brought on by the global downturn, some signs of recovery are emerging in India, as employment in some manufacturing and service sectors is once again on the rise.
About half a million employees were laid off last year, but employment in the service sectors overall has now increased from about a quarter million to 15.72 million in three months.
This is according to a survey conducted by India's Labour Ministry, which said that the country's Information Technology (IT) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sectors, which bore the brunt of the downturn, have shown the most improvement in hiring levels.
Nimish Adani, CEO, workosaur.com, said: "As far as employment is concerned, there have been certain short-term initiatives taken by the government. There has been an infusion of stimulus packages in sectors which were labour intensive. So, there has been a marginal improvement. But I don't think we should read too much into it."
Cautious observers also pointed out that on a month-on-month basis, there is still a hiring slump. In fact, some companies are now "right-sizing", instead of downsizing, as they review hiring plans and look into raising productivity.
"Everybody was riding on the India wave. People were expecting a lot of businesses to come to India and the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies and they were hiring... in the anticipation of that demand," Adani said.
"Now, obviously, once we know that the demand is not there and the markets are going down, the hiring patterns are going to change. The entire outlook has changed towards hiring. Now, people are looking at creating smart teams rather than larger teams."
Corporate India has asked the government to help boost jobs by investing in labour-intensive industries. It wants the new government to expedite infrastructure projects, which are the biggest employment generators in the country.
Real estate firms, on the other hand, want the government to cut interest rates on home loans, which will see more consumers coming into the market; cash-strapped retail sector wants 100 per cent foreign direct investment to stay afloat.
As the availability of manpower is not a problem, organisations are looking to fill skill gaps in their talent pool. But overall, the job market in India is unlikely recover till later this year when world market stability is restored slowly.
- CNA/so
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