The days of fear surrounding job markets are now almost over. It has been about two years since economic crunch started affecting both big corporations and small companies with the first casualty being hiring, followed by a squeeze in training budgets.
The Ivy League B-schools in the country, IIMs, XLRI, XIMB, all faced the heat and the famous starting salaries showed a big drop.
Other smaller institutes across the country struggled to place their students. But finally, as companies start freezing their plans for the coming season, hiring seems to be back on the agenda.
Based on the current market trends, here’re some sectors which are likely to see robust hiring this year:
1) Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)
Till 2007 almost 53% of the new hiring took place in this space and it was also the sector which was hit big time in the last season on account of lower credit off-take and the overall recessionary sentiment around it.
“The sector is now witnessing between 8 and 10 new players (health insurance, general insurance, NBFCs, and banking entities). This, coupled with a depressed hiring over the last year and announcement of over one lakh vacancies in the PSU banks, is likely to fuel hiring,” says Alok Bansal, CEO, Alethia Education Services.
Some of the private sector players such as Yes Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI, SCB are back in the market looking for young workforce. Most insurance companies are also in the fray and are changing the way they looked at hiring in the past.
Hiring talent from tier 2 and tier 3 cities is also on the rise. They believe that it will help them reach these towns easily and also help in managing attrition. New players, especially in the health insurance segment and with their aggressive targets, are likely to fuel hiring growth here.
2) BPOs/KPOs
A sector largely hit by the recessionary trends and the near collapse of the US economy had put a freeze on hiring.
“The same sector in the hay days hired from every possible place and background fuelling a mushrooming of the placement and training business and also ensured that the overall entry level salaries showed an unexpected and irrational jump. This is the sector which also is back in action in terms of recruitments. Some of the bigger BPOs like Genpact, IBM etc have once again announced a carefully-drawn plan to hire,” informs Mr Bansal.
The list of KPOs operating in India has also shown an expected jump. Companies in their bid to retain their share of the outsourcing market have upgraded their setups and are now gradually moving up the value chain. More and more companies are looking at young engineering and other technical graduates to beef their teams to provide high end knowledge services to their clients, be it the stock analysis, GPRS, high-end business analytics, financial modeling or forex trading. This sector is back at the campuses.
3) Telecom
Despite 3G spectrum auction playing hide and seek, this segment has grown at an unexpected pace over the past five years.
It is believed that some turmoil caused by consolidation in the industry is now settled and companies in this space, be it the Bharti group, Vodafone, Reliance.
Tata, Idea or others, are now back in the hiring mode. The expansion of the enterprise solutions, fixed line and others telecom products is seeing an upswing.
It is believed that these companies are expected to move to the tier 2 and tier cities to keep up with their hiring targets.
4) Manufacturing, Engineering & Construction
Depressed sentiment notwithstanding, the auto sector continued to shake the old way of thinking. A never-seen-before scenario in terms of insatiable demand has been witnessed. An increasing number of players entered the market and have announced plans to set up manufacturing base in India.
“This is likely to set off a chain reaction. Besides, popular names like Maruti, Tata and Hyundai hiring their ancillary units are likely to step up the demand and higher recruitment is forecasted. Engineering and construction have also been showing very positive signs in terms of consumption and the customer sentiment. A consolidation in the cement sector, a huge order book by companies like L&T, an increasing interest in mining, large scale construction and pressure of completion of the pending projects is likely to see a substantial jump in this segment,” says Mr Bansal.
5) ITeS
The blue eyed boys of the bourses, the software companies continued to manage contracts from other countries. The commendable handling of the Satyam saga and the increasing respect for the talent pool in India saw a substantial number of projects being handled in India.
Besides the general software development, a large chunk of the specialized software development work in telecom, mobile applications and space technology is now being handled out of India.
Some bigwigs like TCS and Infosys have already announced hiring in large numbers. This coupled by other companies is likely to bring back hiring to the golden era of 2006-7.
Overall, despite the ups and downs the economy is facing, India has managed to emerge as a stable, high-growth economy and has been able to gain faith from the world in terms of the story it offers. This, coupled by the young population, is likely to fuel growth in recruitments.
Article courtesy of Economic Times.
