Industry experts say that as far as hiring is concerned, the worst is over. The year will bring in lots of opportunities as growth will be a priority for the Government. This will result in generation of many jobs in the next five years, says Premlesh Machama
According to Manpower Employment Outlook survey, the year 2013 had the weakest hiring outlook in the Asia-Pacific region in the last eight years. Now that 2013 is over, experts believe worst may be over on hiring front thus human resource professionals need to know what 2014 is going to bring, with that employees can even look forward to double digit hike in pay packages.
The sectors that are likely to drive the job market include IT, healthcare, education and 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 this year as the agriculture sector is increasing at a growth of 100 per cent (2 per cent in 2013 and expected at 4 per cent in 2014). Some more hiring zones which need to be watched, especially for mid and senior level hiring will be startup’s. While e-commerce startups may continue to explore their way to break even, we may see consolidation in the sector and therefore, not resulting in much job growth, however overall startup genre will create good number of jobs this year.
It is expected that the manufacturing sector will also chip in 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 workforce. Hence, the demand for talent will see an increase at the middle management level across all sectors. Cutting back on hiring entry and junior-level staff, companies are increasingly looking to hire experienced professionals who will get to work 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 thus, creating an environment of pessimism.
This led to a belief that the Government is not serious about growth and businesses stopped investing in new projects.
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 present account deficit, fiscal deficit and RBI Governor trying to rein in inflation, some of the decisions by Government have started showing signs of improvement. The economy is believed to have bottomed out with a few green shoots of recovery visible in some areas. Though eight per cent plus growth may take some more time, experts believe going forward 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 country’s 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 Government 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 the rupee remains at the present levels of exchange rate, export oriented sectors where India has lost its edge to countries like Bangladesh, Philippines; Indonesia too could become more competitive. Export sectors like garment, handicrafts, yarn, and pharmaceutical has huge potential of generating good number of jobs. In addition, many BPO businesses lost to other Asian countries can come back to India hence, 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 of opportunities to fill the glass completely through the year. The year appears to begin with lot of promises, optimism and opportunities. However, it remains to be seen how our electorate votes in General Elections and which Government takes the centrestage. Whichever party or combination forms the Government in Delhi; stimulating growth will remain top priority for the incumbent Government thus resulting in high volume of new jobs creation.
(The writer is MD, CareerBuilder, India)