Around 3.5 million job opportunities likely to be on offer in 2016

EMPLOYERS MAY PREFER TO HIRE CANDIDATES BELOW 30 YEARS AGE, SAID HIRING EXPERTS

NEW DELHI: The New Year could turn out to be really happy for the job seekers.

Thanks to the much-needed reform initiatives, including increasing the foreign direct investment in some sectors and Make in India, the year 2016 is anticipated to create about 3.5 million job opportunities.

“We are expecting creation of about 3.5 million jobs, where major chunk of hiring is expected in retail, app economy and automobile,” Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder, Teamlease Services, a staffing firm, and president of Indian Staffing Federation, an apex body for temporary staffing told HT. Teamlease expects retail sector to create 1.2 million job vacancies, followed by 650,000 in automobile, 600,000 in app economy, 300,000 in banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), 270,000 in IT, and 300,000 in e-commerce.

A survey conducted by Indian arm of Us-based staffing firm, Manpowergroup, said employers predict an increase of almost 42% in the hiring numbers. “Industries like manufacturing and automation which have been struggling, will now witness a major boost,” said AG Rao, group MD, Manpowergroup India.

Amit Garg, executive director, digital initiatives, HT Media, which owns Shine.com, said, “The job creation hopefully should gain momentum in the second-half, considering GST, digital India, Start Up India, Stand Up India, and Smart City would come into effect.”

However, predictions on salary hikes are not much encouraging. “Employers are expected to shell out an average salary hike of 10.8% But, inflation will end up eroding much of the increments,” said global professional services firm Towers Watson.