Amid hiring freeze, job market heads for another gloomy year
NEW DELHI:
Planning to change your job this year? Might not be a good idea! You might not find many job openings in 2017. The job market is headed for yet another dull year with many employers in wait-and-watch mode.
In fact, companies might just start handing out pink slips, recruitment experts warned. The Centre’s demonetisation move and the election of Donald Trump as the US president are likely to impact the lives of 500 million workers in India. The sectors likely to get hit the most are information technology, e-commerce, real estate, advertisement and media, construction and infrastructure.
For Instance, the e-commerce sector that employs around 1 million people may fire around 200,000 employees in the next year. “Cash on delivery being almost 70% of the overall e-commerce business, the sector is likely to take a hit and lose almost 20% of their headcount in the next few months,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder at staffing firm Teamlease Services.
Anandorup Ghose, director at US-based human resource consultancy Aon Hewitt, echoed similar views. “For the next six to eight months, we could foresee job losses and a freeze on hiring. Moreover, if the government’s objectives (related to demonetisation) are not met, we should expect more challenges.”
According to global advisory, Willis Towers Watson, only 31% companies are positive about their hiring outlook in the next 12 months and employees are likely to see single digit salary hikes for the first time since 2011.
Another survey by job portal Monster.com highlighted the steep decline in recruitment in production and manufacturing sectors. “These two key mass recruiting industries continue to show declining growth owing to depressed private investment and global economic and political events,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director, Monster.com. The IT industry is undergoing a phase of disruption and has witnessed diminishing growth figures for the past couple of months. “The election of Donald Trump as US President is not a positive step for the IT industry. The industry would wait and understand his inclination and policies before hiring aggressively this year,” said AG Rao, group managing director at American staffing firm, ManpowerGroup.
If this was bad enough, get ready for lower increments next year. Employees are expected to see an average 10% increase in salary in 2017 -- lower than the 10.3% rise in the previous year, according to the latest report by global consultancy Korn Ferry Hay Group.