2015: Sectors that went up & down

Published on:

23 Dec 2015, 12:00 am

Recruitment is an ever-evolving phenomenon. 2015 saw growth and slowdown in the hiring trends in many industries. Here is a summation of this year and what to look forward to

IT was big

Those in the IT sector have reason to cheer as 2015 was the year of growth, thanks to a boost in start-up activity in India. This created numerous opportunities and recorded significant hiring trends.

The India Skills Report of 2015 says that the hiring trend in India was on an upswing and a large chunk of the numbers favoured the IT sector. It also threw up data on gender diversity. While IT emerged as a favourable career choice for 68 per cent men, only 32 per cent of women were gainfully employed within this sector. Nonetheless, on the whole tech hiring continued to dominate job growth in the country.

“India has over 3,100-plus start-ups, which is fourth highest in the world, according to a report published by NASSCOM. In 2015 alone, over 450 funding events have been disclosed, providing these companies with financial power to compete for the best talent. large numbers of professionals from established companies like MNCs and IT services firms sought challenges at fast-growing start-ups. Most start-ups prefer to hire from other software product companies or freshers from top schools like IITs and NITs,” Aditya Rajgarhia, CEO and founder, Instahyre.com tells you. The company is a career marketplace that connects the best talent with tech companies in India.

Make in India

With the Make in India tag, the manufacturing industry saw an influx of job opportunities this year. Over 64 per cent companies said they expected a higher influx of new employees than the year before. Many of the open positions are found in the mid-level posts, followed by junior hires.

“What companies were looking for were employees who would produce top quality work in minimal turnaround time. However, the FMCG industry didn’t see a significant spurt in new hiring. The focus was on revamping the 2015 sales methods. Companies showed an increasing preference for online talent acquisition, while maintaining special hiring teams said a study by Aon Hewitt, an expert in human resources.

Realty take

Though the realty took a beating when it came to selling residential propety, there was a rise in the number of desk jobs that emerged in the real estate and construction sector. These emerged as prime employment generator in the country with the maximum rise in human resource requirement from 2013-2022, according to National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

India is estimated to need around 76.5 million workers in the building, construction and real estate sector by 2022. With affordable housing, which is expected to need 38 million workforce by 2030 from 29 million at present, it is predicted to be the key job creator, the NSDC report said.

The construction sector is one of the largest seasonal employment providers in India with agriculture being the top player, creating more than 45 million jobs either directly or indirectly. Though the sector is highly unorganised, it is one of the major industries that hires employees for a short duration.

In terms of employment, technicians, foremen have had the maximum growth of 95 per cent between 2005 and 2011 followed by unskilled workforce (34 per cent). The construction sector attracted $40,399 million as foreign direct investment between 2000 and 2013, and is expected to further get inflow of $180 billion by 2020. The sector grew at a CAGR of 9.42 per cent between 2003-04 and 2012-13. Capital investments in the sector is anticipated to rise from $651 billion in 2012-13 to $1,181 billion in 2019-20.

Serve it up

The Indian hospitality industry emerged as one of the key industries that drove the growth of the services sector in the country. The industry has always been linked to the ups and downs of the tourism industry. This year, the hospitality industry recorded a good growth that was propelled by inflow of foreign tourists as well as increased tourist movement within the country.

Improving economy and investment in Indian carriers and hotels by companies across the globe was also a reason for increased hiring — approximately 30-40 per cent rise as compared to 2014.

Car-obaar

Junior level hiring accelerated in 2015 in the automotive and auto-components industry, comprising 56 per cent of open positions.

Two-thirds of companies plannedto fill their entry-level positions by recruiting from campuses, they lacked a skilled team dedicated to active recruitment as per the findings of a survey by Aon Hewitt, a provider of human capital and management consulting services.

Senior level recruiting was as low as 10 per cent and filling those positions had been a problem across all levels of hiring. Vendor and recruitment team costs are two most prevalent factors accounting for cost per hire.

Companies in India have been increasingly filing positions internally across all levels. Structuring talent acquisition teams across levels was the key. This increased effectiveness, including adapting skill assessment tools to cater to diverse talent pools.

Hiring for GenX

According to Abhishek Anand, director, Eptitude, for fresh engineering undergraduates, IT companies like TCS, Wipro and HCl were the top recruiters. Most such companies hire in bulk and usually have a waiting period of seven to eight months.

“An increase of hiring in start-ups was seen, companies like Flipkart, Snapdeal, PayTM and so on. These offer higher packages and immediate joining, which is preferred over the waiting period in IT companies,” he says. Also, proportion of start-ups who are recruiting is on the rise

“For business and commerce undergrads from DU, the main criteria was to see the maximum package being offered, as they were not very clear about their roles in the company,” he adds. However, management and consulting firms remained a favourite with them, like Mckinsey and Bain, which have a much more rigorous process and hire only five to six people from the top four or five DU colleges.

There was major recruiting in banking, auditing (company like EY) and start-ups. As far as companies are concerned, preference was given to students with extra-curricular activities and those who have practical experience in the form of internships.

“If we look at the six-seven top B-schools, the trend is moving towards start-ups, while investment banking, management and consultancy remain the aspirational industries. IT industry is also a major recruiter,” adds Anand. An important part of recruitments from these colleges is that preference is given to work experience (counted only if it is more than two years, for which there is a lateral placement process as well).

“Recruiters prefer IIMs Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata for the main placements, going to the other centres only for the summer placements,” he says, stating that these trends are expected to continue in 2016 as well.