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LEAP YEAR A million new jobs. The best salary hikes in the Asia-Pacific region that will fatten purses of employees by 10 per cent on average. After the gloom of the slowdown, the sun appears to be shining again on India in 2010

It's the time of year when management graduates across the counry put on their best ties and head out to campus interviews. If they've been good students, they do so in been good students, they do so in expectation of salaries with as many digits as telephone numbers.

Last year was a bad year. The Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, the country's top man- agement institute, took a record nine days to place its graduating batch. Even then, salaries were down by 25 to 33 per cent compared to 2008.

This year, the smiles are back. "We cannot say the offers were through the roof, but compared to last year, the num- ber of offers and packages has increased", says Himanshu Nema, a second year student and student head of the IIM-A placement committee.

Campuses around the country expect a better show this year. IIM Calcutta's campus recruitment began yesterday.

This year, 95 companies have turned up, compared to 80 last year, and more are expected. Prafull Agnihotri, chair- man of the placement and career devel- opment cell at IIM-C, says, "According to me, salary figures will not touch the 2008 mark, but students will definite- ly bag 20 per cent more than what was offered to them last year".

With inputs from Kamayani Singh in Delhi, Prasad Nichenametla in Ahmedabad, Salil Mekaad in Bangalore and Mou Chakraborty in Kolkata

mahua.venkatesh@hindustantimes.com

Source: Hindustan Times by Mahua Venkatesh We Bring Good News  - Expect Jobs & Hikes

• WHERE ARE THE JOBS?

• Engineers and MBAs are back in demand.

• THE MACRO VIEW

• LOOK WHO'S BACK

2009 was a defining year for several professionals and the job market witnessed a return of sanity after the three year bull phase. Senior professionals chastened by the past experience of excessively focusing on compensation and thereby making short term career calls are now looking to focus on the long term. Across the board, compensation levels were either static or witnessed modest single digit increases during the year and will continue to remain so as companies may not go overboard this time around. However, we are seeing big spikes in variable compensation even across traditional sectors as companies prefer to pay more for performance and keep fixed costs under check. Stock options which had temporarily lost its sheen are seen to be back in vogue.

The financial services sector bore the brunt of the slowdown. The retail financial services and broking businesses witnessed job losses as most banks and NBFCs wound up unprofitable lines. However, the wholesale and investment banking businesses have continued to hire selectively especially in the area of debt capital markets and related areas. We expect the situation to turn around across the sector gradually by the third quarter of the year. Compensation and bonuses in the sector have come under intense scrutiny from the regulators and are unlikely to see major upheavals in the near term, though in relative terms, executives in the sector continue to be the highest paid.

Looking forward, we expect the power and heavy infrastructure sectors to continue its robust growth spurring demand for professionals in the areas of project management, especially mega projects and CFOs with big ticket fund raising expertise apart from project specific niche areas. Further, we have seen increased demand for expatriate executives and returning Indians as local expertise is lacking or non existent in new growth sectors like power, airport infrastructure and allied areas which have been opened up to the private sector. However, the commercial and residential real estate sector which witnessed steep erosion in capital values seems to be limping back to action, but the outlook still seems hazy.

By K Sudarshan,
Managing Partner-India,
EMA Partners International.

Source: Economic Times 'No scarcity of job opportunities in 2010'

A framework has been drawn up for providing large-scale employment to the people and, in the coming years, no household would be left which does not have at least one member employed. The Chief Minister held out this assurance while redressing people's grievances at the Irrigation Rest House here.

"I have compassion for the cause of the common man and will strive hard to provide them maximum facilities and benefits. During my previous term, developmental works were carried out in every area without any discrimination, and this would continue in my present term also", Hooda said.

The Chief Minister said that as many as 22 professional guidance units had been set up in the state to impart knowledge about the various avenues available to the jobless youth. These would guide them to select the profession in keeping with their capabilities and aptitude.

Besides, private placement cells have been set up at Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sonipat, Yamunanagar, Rohtak, Hisar, Panipat and Bahadurgah to make capable candidates available to entrepreneurs in the private sector. District Employment Offices have been computerised and connected through internet to provide speedy information to the unemployed.

Source: Economic Times Haryana govt committed to providing jobs

In the run up to the Commonwealth Games -- that Delhi would be hosting in October next year -- the Games Organising Committee (OC) is on a hiring spree.

It is looking for interested professionals -- both in the government and corporate sector -- who are willing to join and help in the successful organisation of the games.

At present the OC has 450 staff on it rolls but this, officials said, is woefully short to meet the requirement.

"We will need a total of 1,500 to 1,600 paid staff at the Organising Committee," said Randhir Singh, vice chairman of the OC.

The committee has set aside a budget of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) to meet the existing and proposed manpower cost.

Source: Hindustan Times Looking for a job? Join the Games brigade

Home Tutors wanted for 12th class student for Physics , Chemistry , Maths & Multimedia Webtech .

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When a global asset management company decided to hire a new country head for India in May, the timing seemed ideal: not many financial service companies were recruiting and the market was flush with talent. But after four months of constant negotiations, the company is yet to complete the process as the selected candidate is demanding more money than it could offer.

Similarly, when a technology company that employs 10,000-odd people in India decided to hire a new CEO a couple of months ago, it took a few thousand dollars more and an extra month than the company had in mind to get the candidate on board.

Suddenly, candidates for top jobs are bargaining hard and long in a job market that’s tilting back in favour of the employee, with a clutch of companies across sectors returning to fill up the vacancies after almost a year.

“We are witnessing a situation where the outstanding leadership talent is being pursued by multiple opportunities, thereby vesting significant negotiation power with these executives,” said Atul Vohra, managing partner of executive search firm Transearch International.

Source: Economic TimesWanted: Reasonable candidates for top jobs

Shaking off its slowdown-induced chill, corporate India is recovering its appetite for growth. And the talent needed to drive it.

Jobs are back.
From consumer goods to retail, infrastructure to automobiles, employers are once again scouting for staff.

Consider this: According to apex industry body Assocham, in the National Capital Region alone, employers were adding more than 400 new jobs every day. That is 49,750 jobs at different levels between April and July this year alone. The outlook for fresh hires is even more positive.

India's largest job portal, Naukri.com, said India Inc's hiring activity picked up 8 per cent in June and a further 1.3 per cent in July.

In its survey on hiring trends, based on polls of over 5,000 employers spread across the country, the outlook for jobs has improved across the board, with IT, real estate, financial services, fast food and retail sectors leading the pack.
According to a quarterly survey by global recruitment firm Antal International, the percentage of companies in India hiring professionals and managers is up 51 per cent, after a dramatic fall to 29 per cent at the beginning of 2009.

As a result, job prospects for professionals and managers in India are now better than the global average, the survey said.

Hiring outlook for the next three months also looks promising, with as many as 66 per cent Indian companies expecting to recruit.

Source: India Today Firms On The Manhunt As Slump Eases

Global outsourcing vendors, such as Accenture and Capgemini, are increasingly poaching staff from Indian rivals as they tap into BPO professionals to compete more effectively against companies like TCS, Wipro and Infosys. As offshore outsourcing goes mainstream, overseas multinationals are hiring Indians to head their sales teams in key markets in Europe and the US, a shift from the practice of employing locals to win contracts.

"This is happening for several roles spanning sales, sales support and delivery. There is in a sense, even positive discrimination towards Indians now," an Indian executive who joined an MNC in Germany recently told ET on condition on anonymity.

Offshore outsourcing, or remote delivery of software application development, maintenance and support from countries such as India, helps customers such as GE and Citibank save up to 40% in costs. Indian companies started using offshore outsourcing to their advantage around a decade ago by wooing customers with major cost benefits.

About a dozen or so top professionals have left an Indian company in recent months to join multinational competitors. Padmanabhan Ananthanarayanan, who headed India's largest software exporter TCS' sales organisation in Europe until February this year, joined Accenture in March as director for its outsourcing business based in Germany.

Source: Economic Times Global BPO vendors source staff from India

About 49,000 openings were offered by companies at different levels in April-July 2009-10 in the National Capital Region (comprising Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad) as compared to 42,501 openings between December-March 2008-09, the industry body said.

"Of total 49,750 number of job openings in the region, 46.4 per cent accounted for Delhi, while remaining 53.6 per cent went to rest of the region," Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.

He added the employment sector is likely to pick up as the signs of economic downturn are diminishing significantly.

Out of the total share of employment opportunities offered, companies in Gurgaon has offered the maximum number of jobs (23 per cent) followed by Delhi, Noida/Greater Noida (20 per cent), Ghaziabad (5.6 per cent) and Faridabad (4.9 per cent) and in sectors like IT/ITeS industry, academics, banking financial service and insurance sector, Assocham said.

With the Commonwealth Games 2010 fast approaching, the growth in the number of new vacancies in construction, hospitality and infrastructure sector would also increase, it said.

TeamLease Services Managing Director Ashok Reddy said that the demand for temporary employees had gone up nearly 100 per cent from the earlier levels.

"On an average, we have over 3,000 vacancies now, against the peak of 8,000 to 10,000 in 2005 and a low of 1,400 some months ago. Sectors like telecommunication, financial services, fast-moving consumer goods and IT to some extent have enough openings that need to be filled."

"There's a marginal improvement in the job market. But since larger job markets like the US and Europe are still under pressure (several large employers are headquartered there), it's too early to say anything," Ma Foi Management Consultants CEO and Director E Balaji added.

He attributed the marginal improvement in demand to opportunities in sectors like pharmaceutical, life sciences, healthcare and power which have not borne the brunt of the slowdown.

Source: Business-standard Job drought could end soon; recruitment agencies see pick-up in hiring

The minister informed the Lok Sabha that as per the estimation of the ministry based on a specific study in 2003-04, the yearly additional requirement of trained manpower of the hospitality industry is of about 200,000 people.

Selja said considering the shortage of skilled manpower in the sector, the government has initiated a programme for skill development for youth in the age group of 18 to 25 years and for those who are at least Class 8 pass.

"The programme will impart training in food and beverage service and food production so that the trainees become employable," she said.

She said under the ministry's scheme of capacity building for service providers, they enable training of cooks, waiters, drivers and other service providers.

"The computerisation process of major employment exchanges of the country is on and will be completed in the next three months.

"Once this is done, all information about job opportunities and those listed in the exchange will be available on a website," Union Minister of Labour and Employment, Mallikarjun Kharge told PTI.

This could be a boon for job seekers as the proposed 'national portal' will make all employment-related services available on a single window.

"The web portal would be a storehouse of information on availability and requirement of skilled persons and would also network with industrial training institutes and other centres," a senior official of the Ministry said.

Modernisation of employment exchanges across the country will help students register online and reach out to any exchange in the country.

The National e-Governance Plan had identified employment exchanges as one of the Mission Mode Projects.

The modernisation move will also enable real-time usage of online data submitted by employers for providing opportunities to job seekers, the official said.

Availability of data would also help both the Centre and the state governments to plan policy interventions, the official said.

Modernisation of the exchanges will be launched in two phases, covering Haryana, Rajasthan, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Assam in the first phase and the rest of the states in the second phase.

The entire project is expected to be completed in 36 months from commencement of the work.

The Labour and Employment ministry has held a series of meetings with state governments and the detailed project report is in the final stages of preparation, sources said.

National Institute for Smart Government (NISG), a non- profit making organisation, has been selected as a principal consultant for the modernisation of the employment exchanges.

Services of established job portals would also be sought to make the project possible, the official said.

Once the exchanges become fully active, they are expected to provide quality guidance on capabilities assessment, employment counseling and vocational guidance, and training- related information to the job seekers.

"This would enable a job seeker to register online from anywhere and approach any employment exchange," Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said while presenting the Union Budget on Monday.

The project will be launched in public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

Under the project, a national web portal with common software will be developed. This will contain all the data regarding the availability of skilled persons, on the one hand, and requirements of skilled persons by industry, on the other.

It will help the youth to get placed and enable industry to procure required skills in real time, Mukherjee added.

Job loss is one of the worst fallout of any economic slowdown. What began as a housing mortgage crisis in the US last year quickly sipralled into a global economic meltdown and from September 2008 companies across the world began downsizing their workforce to cut losses.

India too felt the tremors with close to 50,000 laid off in a span of two months, according to executive search firm Redileon Search Partners.

Sectors that have witnessed the axe include real estate and construction whic saw 79 per cent cut in its workforce. Job is export and trade, too, are down by 79 per cent while IT and hospitality sectors have witnessed a dip of 50 per cent. Banking and financial sector saw job cuts by 22 per cent.

But numbers alone don't explain the full story.

''One afternoon when I went to office… I was suddenly called by the editor and all of a sudden he said that you have to go,'' says Barid Baran, who worked as corporate communication manager.

Source: ibnlive.in.comIndian job market better off than western countries

In a bid to put job creation at the centre of its economic policies, the government plans to make it mandatory for all development programmes to generate employment, through a first-ever National Employment Policy (NEP).

The same goal will also be embedded in future bailouts or concessions to private sector companies, said a labour ministry official, and will also apply to special economic zones, the tax-free export hubs on which no consolidated survey reports on job potential exists.

Critics of Indian growth since the advent of reforms have often pointed out that job creation has not kept pace with economic expansion, unlike in many other Asian countries such as Taiwan and South Korea. India's average annual employment growth rate between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 grew 3%. But during this period, the unemployment rate also went up from 2.2% to 2.3%, according to labour ministry statistics.

About 10 million people are expected to enter the labour force each year. The policy notes that unemployment is highest among the youth, women and college graduates, and new opportunities can be created in both labour-intensive and new sectors, such as construction and tourism.

Source: Live Mint New focus: bailouts, govt spending have to create jobs

The Manpower Employment Outlook survey of 34 countries for the third quarter shows India at No. 1 with an overall Net Employment Outlook of 19 per cent followed by Norway and Poland.

However, this is still the lowest-ever outlook for India since 2005 but it is substantially better than three per cent in China and -2 per cent in United States of America.

Sectorwise public administration and education register the best outlook. Manufacturing, trade and mining may also see improved hiring.

Highlights of Manpower Employment Outlook Survey (MEOS) Q3 2009

• Of 34 countries surveyed, India ranks no. 1 with overall Net Employment Outlook of +19 per cent. MEOS findings reveal that the most favourable third-quarter hiring plans globally after India are reported by employers in Norway and Poland.

• This is the lowest ever Outlook for India since 2005, when MEOS was launched in India. However, this Outlook is substantially better than 3 per cent in China, -2 per cent in US and -6 per cent in the UK.

• Hiring is expected to be positive in only 11 out of the 34 countries and territories surveyed globally with the lowest outlook in Ireland, Romania & Greece.

• India's net employment outlook fell from 25 per cent in the second quarter to 19 per cent in third. This is much lower than 43 per cent recorded for the Quarter 3 of 2008.

• Employers in South are the most optimistic with a Net Employment Outlook of +41 per cent, which is an improvement of 17 percentage point over the previous quarter in that region.

• Employers in the North and the West, report the weakest Outlooks of +13 per cent; in the third quarter compared to 23 per cent and 24 per cent reported is the previous quarter respectively.

• Comparison with the third quarter of 2008 reveal that employers in all the regions reported decline in Outlook with North and West regions registering a fall of 39 and 30 percentage points respectively.

• The public administration and education sector registered the best outlook at 33 per cent while finance, insurance and real-estate sector was the least optimistic at 11 per cent.

• All the sectors reported a negative year-on-year change in outlook except the public administration and education sector which registered an increase of 8 percentage points due to the government's initiatives.

• However, the employment situation has become better since April when the survey was conducted. Sectors like manufacturing, trade (wholesale and retail) and mining sectors may see improved hiring in as the macroeconomic environment becomes better in India.

"This year, SEZs are expected to generate one lakh jobs, if not more, with some of the large scale projects taking off by the middle of the year," quoted a senior commerce ministry official in the report.

The total number of jobs generated by SEZs as on March 31, 2009 was 3,83,435 with an incremental employment generation for 2,48,731 persons.

Meanwhile, jobs produced in notified SEZs reached 1,31,515.

Even as the slowdown is imminent in SEZs with some big players such as DLF and Unitech surrendering some of their projects due to severe cash crunch, over 15-20 are projected to start operations by the year 2011.

The commerce ministry has received 18 proposals for setting up SEZs, which are likely to be considered by an empowered board after the new government assumes office later this month. The board of approval, chaired by commerce secretary G K Pillai, may meet immediately after the new government is formed to take up the SEZ proposals, the official said.

Source: Realty Plus SEZs to create 1 lakh more jobs

While the proposed over 2.5 lakh hiring is mostly for the financial services industry, the industry experts believe that the overall job market scenario is also set for a recovery in the second half of the year.

Topping the list of the companies planning to hire big include public sector banking giants like State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank as well as insurance firms such as Anil Ambani group's Reliance Life, SBI Life, Metlife, Max New York Life.

Even some BPOs and healthcare firms like ACS and Accentia are planning to hire thousands of people in the coming days.

The proposed hirings include more than one lakh of full- time employees and about 1.5 lakh in the part-time positions with the insurance companies
.

Among other sectors, manufacturing and export-oriented businesses are, however, likely to continue to witness some pressure in the next few months, after huge job losses seen during 2008.

Public sector financial institutions have embarked on a hiring spree at a time when even leading private and foreign bankers are realigning their divisions and cutting down staff strength to face the difficult times.

LIC plans to strengthen its workforce by adding 10,000 people by March, 5,000 in marketing and the rest in administration, LIC's Managing Director, AK Dasgupta said.

"Slowdown in the market will not pose any hurdles for LIC to strengthen our team as the corporation is on an am bitious expansion mode," he told PTI.

The insurance major, which has a 78 per cent market share in terms of total premiums, has already kicked off a recruitment drive to strengthen its marketing team.

The country's largest bank, the State bank of India, plans to hire about 20,000 clerical staff and 5,000 supervisory staff by the end of 2008-09.

Punjab National Bank will hire 2,000 persons with "specific skills" in the next four months, its Chairman and Managing Director K.C. Chakrabarty said, signalling an upbeat mood. "I require people for the credit, treasury, corporate communication and marketing," he said. PNB has also announced plans to hire 377 managers and officers. "Twenty per cent (of profit growth)... That's what we will be able to maintain (in this financial year)," he said.

Other major public sector banks, which have huge hiring plans include Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of India.

Chakrabarty said the next fiscal year could see more hiring in PNB to replace retiring employees.

SBI and associates are also hiring more than 4,200 employees for its six associate banks and 1,300 customer rela tionship executives on contract.