India Career Journal: Who’s Hiring?

JUNE 17, 2010, 1:29 PM IST

By Shefali Anand

Jobs are back, thanks to an uptick in the Indian economy over the last few months.

European Pressphoto Agency

After a tough 2008 and 2009, hotels, resorts and other tourism-related services are hiring again.

But who is hiring, and what are they looking for?

Here, we list five industries that are crying out for new employees. But be warned: hiring this time around is not like the boom times of 2006 and 2007. Back then, companies were hiring indiscriminately, taking on tons of fresh-out-of-school graduates and ready to invest time and money to train them. This time, companies increasingly want more experienced people, preferably ready to hit the ground running as soon as they start their jobs. Also, companies are spreading their recruitment throughout the year instead of concentrating the hiring process at the beginning of the financial year.

Nearly one million new jobs could be created in the organized sector this year, estimates human resource services firm Ma Foi Randstad. A lot of them will be in the following industries:

1. Healthcare

The expansion of hospitals, primary healthcare centers and diagnostic centers in India, has created a hunger for staff in these businesses.

According to Ma Foi Randstad Employment Trends Surve released on Thursday, the healthcare industry will create 160,000 jobs within the three months ended June.

Within this industry, among the most in-demand professionals are nurses, who are in short supply both in India as well as abroad. K. Pandia Rajan, chief executive of Ma Foi (India & Sri Lanka), says that some nurses who get hired outside India earn more than a software engineer from a second-tier engineering school in India.

There’s also a lot of demand for people in “allied health services” such as laboratory technicians, x-ray technicians and staff at physiotherapy units. Neighboring Southeast Asian countries and the Middle East are also seeking this talent as they build their medical tourism capabilities, says Kamal Karanth, managing director of Kelly Services India, a human resource services firm.

2. Banking and Financial Services

Banks and financial companies have always been major creators of jobs and the momentum has once again increased in recent months.

Both public sector and foreign banks are now expanding rapidly across India and are in need of more talent to sell their products and build their brands. They are primarily looking for relationship managers, and front-end managers, to build the services part of their businesses.

Similarly, insurance and money management companies are expanding rapidly, to tap India’s growing wealth. Top sales and marketing people at these companies find it easy to switch to other industries, and they have been, leaving many a job empty.

3. Information Technology and IT-Enabled Services

As the global economy came out of the worst of the recession, India’s information technology companies have seen an increase in demand for their products and services. As a direct result, in recent months they have stepped up their hiring.

At the same time, after the recent lull in the job market, there has been a lot of attrition in this industry lately, as people look for better-paying jobs in rival companies.

Kelly Services’ Mr. Karanth expects that Infosys, Wipro and their ilk could easily absorb 100,000 professionals before the end of this calendar year. He says the most demand is for entry-level programmers as well as for the next level of staff, such as team managers and so on.

The related IT-Enabled Services industry, which basically refers to outsourcing firms, is also hiring, typically freshers and mid-level managers.

4. Hospitality

This was one of the fastest-growing sectors before the recent economic downturn, but was hurt sharply in 2008 and 2009. Now, once again, there is growing momentum in the construction and operation of new hotels, resorts and other tourism-related services.

Market experts expect increased investment in this sector, which should, in turn, further result in new jobs.

While the industry is looking for a wide variety of talent – from chefs to service-keeping staff – the need of the hour is to hire people to run hotels or resorts successfully. In other words, they want people in services or operations management.

5. Real Estate and Construction

Over the last few months, there has been a sharp increase in the construction of homes and housing prices, and big real estate companies have listed major expansion plans.

While this intuitively would give rise to more jobs, human resource consultants are divided on how large this number could be. Also, a large number of people who work in this industry – particularly real estate brokers and salespeople – are not affiliated to companies, and are thus hard to account for.

There is demand for sales and marketing personnel for major real estate projects, but some niche related fields of work are also experiencing a boom. These include architects, designers and technical surveyors, says Mr. Rajan of Ma Foi.

Source: Wall Street Journal Blog

India Inc steps up hiring, job index up 7%

By Agencies 

Riding on improving business confidence, Corporate India's online hiring activity rose for the fifth month in a row, leading recruitment services provider Monster India said.

The Monster Employment Index, a monthly gauge based on a comprehensive review of employer job opportunities from a large selection of online job sites, climbed by 7 per cent to 125 in April, from 117 in March.

"The April rise in Monster Employment Index India is a positive sign as employers continue to expand hiring efforts at the beginning of the second quarter," Monster Worldwide managing director (India, Middle East and Southeast Asia) Sanjay Modi said.

With this, the online employment availability in healthcare, bio technology, life science and pharmaceuticals witnessed its largest monthly rise. Overall, job opportunities rose in 18 of the 27 industry sectors tracked in the survey.

Healthcare led the rise with a 29-point gain in April, indicating a relatively high level of online recruiting in support of scientific research and development activity.

The banking, finance and IT sectors also edged higher in April. Consumer-driven sectors, such as production and manufacturing, automotive, home appliances and real estate, witnessed strong growth over a three-month period.

In the IT industry, the online job demand increased by 51 per cent from January levels. Meanwhile, education was the only industry to grow month-over-month, over a six-month period.

"With other indicators, such as business confidence, improving and most industries and occupational categories in the index registering recent positive trends, we hope to see continued improvement in the future," Modi added.

Online job demand rose at all the 13 cities monitored by the index in April, with Kochi, Coimbatore and Ahmedabad registering the largest jumps.

Among major metropolitan areas, brisk hiring activity was witnessed in Mumbai.

Delhi-NCR and Bangalore grew by 5 per cent over March levels, though hiring activity in Bangalore was relatively restrained compared to the previous month, the study said.

During April, online recruitment activity rose in 13 of the 14 occupational groups tracked, with online job demand for healthcare and engineering/production professionals witnessing the greatest monthly increase.

Educated, unemployable

By Garima Pant 

A yawning gap

Why must Infosys (INFOSYS.BO : 2627.5 -27.5), one of the biggest names in the IT industry, which recruits the cr me-de-le-cr me of professionals from the best institutes in the country, spend $184 million on training programmes annually or invest up to 30 weeks of residential programmes on engineers it hires? The answer is simple the need to build employee competency levels. Says Srikantan Moorthy, VP and head, education & research, Infosys Technologies, "We recruit people on the basis of their learning ability. The investment is a non-negotiable. Besides training we conduct residential programmes to enable our engineers to meet client requirements. The need of the hour is not just for individuals to have strong conceptual knowledge, but also strong application capabilities." His information is, perhaps, an indicator of how inadequate India's education system is when it comes to preparing an individual for a job.

While unemployment cannot be brushed under the carpet, youth employability is no less a nightmare. A lot can be blamed on the education system. As many as 90% employment opportunities require vocational skills, but 90% of our college and school outputs are just cram experts, rendering no less than 57% of India's youth suffering with some degree of unemployability, reveals a recent TeamLease Labour report.

So, if you were looking at the bright side of the picture that just 8% of the youth in India are unemployed, there's hardly a reason to cheer, because 53% of the rest suffer from some form of skill deprivation. That sets back the demographic advantage India could hope to enjoy in future.

"India is coming into its dividend as an unusually young country in an unusually ageing market a young, fresh-faced nation in a graying world," Nandan Nilekani observed in his book, Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century. That's not just another observation. By 2025, 25% of the world's workers will be Indians, points out the TeamLease report. Three hundred and fifty universities, 18,000 colleges and 6,000 ITIs will till then continue to churn out five lakh technical graduates, along with around 2.3 million graduates (or maybe more). Unfortunately, just 10-25% of them will be 'employable', according to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

If that to you seems far fetched, consider this: according to a 2008 report of the Boston Study Group, India by 2012 will have 1.3 million surplus of un-trained and under-educated people and the country will fall short (by 5.3 million) of real talent.

An inefficient human resource development regime in the country, absence of an academia-industry interface, lack of focus on skill development of individuals and an almost non-existent quality assurance framework are the root causes of the poor outcomes of the current educational regime. With no returns expected in terms of jobs, there is a significant drop-out rate leading to an under-trained and under-skilled workforce.

"I opted to work right after graduation as I could see how my seniors were struggling to find a job of their choice and had to make peace with jobs that were underpaying and not worth their efforts," rues 23-year-old Jitesh Bhasin, a BPO employee. His fears are not unjustified.

This trend will result in a deluge of 'shall drop, will work' accumulating at the bottom of the education pyramid. The NSS' 61st round employment data hardly sprung up a surprise when it revealed that in urban India, 207 out of every 1,000 men who completed their graduation or went beyond that remained unemployed, against only 10 men out of a 1,000 who are not literate.

Skill deficit

Consensus on the lack of vocational training in the country impeding competitiveness and productivity of the workforce is easy to achieve among experts. How else do you interpret that only 25% of the engineering graduates, 15% of finance and accounting professionals and just 10% of professionals with any kind of degree are suitable to be employed in MNCs. Incidentally, that finding comes from an MNC itself (McKinsey).

India better pull up its socks. Close to 500 million people, says McKinsey, will need to go through skill development by 2020. As Dilip Chenoy, CEO, National Skills Development Council, says, "It's not education that is primarily responsible for lack of skills. It's probably the lack of systematic approach in skill development and building on whatever education one receives."

The 11th Plan document suggests that due to "the near exclusive reliance upon a few training courses with long duration (two to three years) covering around 100 skills, 80% of new entrants into the workforce have no opportunity for training in skills. 12.8 million population (sic) will enter the work force as new entrants per year. As against this, the present (largely government-administered) system of delivery can only provide training to 3.1 million per year".

The manner in which higher education institutes have grown in the past decade facing difficulty in attracting top-notch faculty, retaining them, and enhancing their skills is worrisome. "Quality has suffered a lot with this expansion," says Amit Bansal, CEO and founder of PurpleLeap, an Educomp-Pearson company that is into entry-level talent management. Many of them, therefore, do not have the ability to attract the best students. "It is the increasing number of students coming out of the neo- and non-academic managed colleges that contribute to non-employability or under- employability," says Srinivasan. With the dilution of entrance standards, the overall education quality is being compromised. K Pandia Rajan, MD, Ma Foi Management Consultants, adds how the academic infrastructure in engineering colleges has become very basic. "A quantum leap in engineering colleges due to poor accreditation policies is a big problem," he says.

Another area of focus is lack of soft skills. Shankar Srinivasan, chief people officer, Cognizant, feels that often students coming out of Indian institutes are technically proficient. "But they lack behavioural prerequisites such as communication, presentation, confidence and other soft skills," he says. Whether the reforms initiated by the government in terms of PPP model being adopted for upgrading ITIs and a modular employable skills programme with an objective to provide employable skills to early school leavers, existing workers and even ITI graduates works remains to be seen.

Undeniably, the need of the hour is to implement a skill-based education system in place of the degree-based system to sincerely solve the problem of educated unemployment.

India, China hiring prospects strong - Manpower

 

By Nick Zieminski

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Employers in most economies are more likely to add workers than three months ago, including those in the United States, but big gains are limited to booming emerging economies like Brazil, India and China, according to a quarterly survey by Manpower Inc.

Manpower's survey, considered a leading indicator of labour demand, suggests an employment recovery will continue in much of the world, but employers remain cautious. In the United States, large-scale job creation is unlikely in coming months.

The global employment services company said Tuesday its seasonally adjusted U.S. net employment outlook was plus-6 for the third quarter, up slightly from plus-5 in the previous survey. It was negative a year ago.

Manpower's index, based on interviews with 18,000 U.S. hiring managers, measures the difference between those who say they will add to their workforce and those who plan cuts. About 70 percent reported no change in their outlook, continuing a recent trend that shows many employers remain unconvinced about the sustainability of the current economic rebound.

"We'll go into the third quarter and see more of what we saw in the second -- no doubt improved BLS numbers, but not so improved that we're going to feel like we're out of the woods," Manpower Chief Executive Jeff Joerres said.

BLS refers to the U.S. government's Bureau of Labour Statistics, which reports monthly employment figures and Friday said 431,000 jobs were added outside the farm sector in May. That was far fewer than expected, and growth in private payrolls also fell short of forecasts.

Indian students look at a text message from a mobile phone in Kolkata, August 23, 2005. Employers in most economies are more likely to add workers than three months ago, including those in the United States, according to a quarterly survey by Manpower Inc. REUTERS/Jayanta Shaw/Files

Encouraging economic signals include a production managers' index that indicates a recovering manufacturing sector, Joerres said. But U.S. employers are able to meet added demand with their existing workforce, and will resist adding new workers until they see credible evidence that demand is sustainable.

"To get that evidence, we may have to wait until the first quarter," Joerres said, noting that hiring is seasonally weak in the fourth quarter. He described the pace of a U.S. jobs recovery as "still very tepid."

Manpower's survey dates back to 1962 in the United States but has a shorter history in other countries. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based company is active in 82 countries and makes most of its sales and profit outside the United States.

BRAZIL, INDIA, CHINA RANK HIGHEST

Manpower's global survey of hiring intentions, based on 61,000 interviews, found better jobs prospects in 23 of 36 countries and territories when compared with the second quarter, and all but four were higher from a year ago.

The strongest hiring prospects are again in emerging Asian economies like India and China, where companies enjoy both local and export demand. China's hiring outlook is the strongest since Manpower started surveying employers there five years ago, while India's has rebounded to a two-year high.

Prospects improved in Japan for the fourth consecutive quarter but remain the lowest in the region, partly a result of political turmoil.

"There's a lot of trepidation in the air in Japan, and as a result hiring is being depressed," Joerres said.

In Latin America, the majority of employers in Brazil anticipate taking on staff. Mexico can also expect a better hiring environment, especially in manufacturing and mining, but the hiring outlook dipped in Argentina.

In Europe, the weakest third-quarter hiring plans were reported in Italy, Ireland, Spain and Greece, while employers in larger economies like France, Germany and the United Kingdom are more willing to add workers over the next three months.

Manpower's third-quarter survey was conducted before a debt crisis in Greece led to a nearly $1 trillion European rescue plan. But Manpower's internal data suggests the crisis has had limited effect on the confidence of European employers.

"We've been seeing really no change in our business since the Greek credit crisis of a month ago," Joerres said.

More employers than last quarter expect to boost hiring in Central European economies, as well as in Spain, Sweden, Austria and Belgium, Manpower said. Prospects are down in Norway, Switzerland and in South Africa, which Manpower groups with Europe and the Middle East.

(Reporting by Nick Zieminski, editing by Matthew Lewis)

16 pc employers in India struggle to fill posts due to talent crunch

Fri, May 21 12:15 PM; Employers in India and across the globe are finding it difficult to fill job positions despite the recovery in job markets due to lack of workforce with the right skills, according to staffing services firm Manpower.

Manpower Inc's fifth annual talent shortage survey released on Thursday states that 31 per cent of the employers worldwide are still struggling to fill vacant positions, while in India, the talent shortage figure stood at 16 per cent.

The survey states that talent shortages persist in many countries and industry sectors. Thirty-one per cent of the employers report facing difficulty in filling key positions within their organisation -a rise of one percentage point compared to 2009.

Employers are finding it difficult to hire suitable talent in skilled trades like sales representatives, technicians and engineers, the report found after a survey of more than 35,000 employers across 36 countries.

These are the same jobs where employers have reported to be struggling for filling positions over the past four years, demonstrating that there is an ongoing global mismatch in these key areas.

Employers who are facing the maximum difficulty in finding the right people are based in Japan (76 per cent), Brazil (64 per cent), Argentina (53 per cent), Singapore (53 per cent), Poland (51 per cent) and Australia (45 per cent).

''We are seeing a 'jobless' recovery in many parts of the world, yet where there are jobs available, employers are having difficulty filling positions,'' the report states.

''The issue is not about the number of potential candidates, but rather a talent mismatch, because there are not enough sufficiently skilled people in the right places at the right times,'' Manpower India managing director Sanjay Pandit said.

In the Asia-Pacific region, the countries that are finding it difficult to find the right talent are Japan (76 per cent), Singapore (53 per cent), Australia (45 per cent), Hong Kong (44 per cent), Taiwan (41 per cent), China (40 per cent), New Zealand (30 per cent) and India (16 per cent).

The report further reveals that in the Asia-Pacific region, talent shortages mirrored those of the rest of the world, with 41 per cent of the region’s employers indicating they are having difficulty filling positions due to the lack of suitable talent in their markets.

This is a nine percentage point increase compared to a previous survey conducted in 2009.

''Employers are seeking more specific skill sets and are less willing to engage in anticipatory hiring. This all adds up to a very challenging and frustrating time for employers and jobseekers alike,'' Pandit added.

The report also says skilled manual trades, cleaners and domestic aid, accounting and finance staff, doctors and nonnursing health, financial and sales representatives are the top five positions where Indian employers are finding it difficult to hire suitable talent.

The study suggested employers to broaden their search for candidates to include industry migrants, location migrants, role changers and workforce entrants. Training and development are the key to successfully tapping into these talent pools.

Human Resource Crisis and Real Education in India

Real estate as a business sector in India was highly localized till late 1990s. It involved funds mainly of the promoters or borrowed from local sources and properties used to be sold mostly to local buyers. Moreover, these properties used to be sold mostly through direct marketing and partly thorough advertisement in local newspapers. Naturally, manpower requirement as well as skill level of the human resource involved was very low.

However, since the beginning of the millennium, the scenario changed dramatically owing to dynamic economic growth. Developers started launching projects after projects, which used to be supported by innovative financial tools offered by private equity & venture capital funds in addition to traditional financial institutions. Governments equally supported the growth with their growth oriented policies. Housing Finance Institutions started offering loans to prospective home buyers liberally. On the other hand, developers and property agents and advisors started formulating innovative marketing, sales and customer service strategies. They suddenly moved from direct and local level marketing to national and international level marketing. World Wide Web became one of the most common medium of promotion.

The above developments resulted in massive requirements of trained, competent and specialist human resources for the real estate sector. Unfortunately, since the time real estate business started growing, neither the real estate sector nor the Government ever thought of any long term strategy to develop manpower for the real estate sector, except occasional airing of concern. The result is the acute manpower crisis in the Indian real estate sector.

It is worth to mention here that real estate is a little different from all the other economic sectors. Because, in order to run real estate business smoothly one needs to have good understating of different aspects of real estate including planning, development, construction, finance, marketing etc., which is not the case with any other sector. This is the reason why professionals from other sectors take time to become productive in real estate sector. Therefore, a proper system of real estate education is almost mandatory for a growth oriented real estate sector.
It is, though, important to note here that there have been few initiatives to offer real estate education in India, most noticeable NICMAR and NIREM. NICMAR, through its centres at New Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad etc., offers a one and a half year program in real estate. NIREM, on the other hand, offers one year PG Diploma and six months Diploma in various specializations of real estate such as real estate management, marketing, sales & brokerage, finance, investment, appraisal etc. NIREM offers these courses as correspondence course.

To conclude, I must say that the above initiatives towards real estate education are insufficient compared to the human resource needs of the Indian real estate sector. Unless there is an integrated planning towards introduction of the system of real estate education in India, this sector will continue to face manpower crisis.

India Inc leader in global hiring trail

Mail Today Bureau;

New Delhi, March 10, 2010 India continues to be the most optimistic nation in terms of hiring plans for the next three months, driven by strong job opportunities across all sectors, including finance and real estate, Manpower India, the Indian arm of the global staffing services firm  Manpower Inc, said on Tuesday. According to the quarterly Employment Outlook Survey, India Inc's hiring outlook for the April-June, 2010 quarter has improved  by four percentage points compared to the previous quarter. With Net Employment Outlook of 39 per cent, Indian employers  reported the most optimistic forecast among all 36 countries and territories that participated in the survey, it said. "Employers remain optimistic on account of strong domestic  growth. We are witnessing improved opportunities for job  seekers across all industry sectors with employers indicating  that hiring in India's services, finance, insurance and real estate  sectors will accelerate in the months ahead," said  Sanjay Pandit, managing director, Manpower India. India has been reporting the strongest hiring plans globally since  the third quarter of 2008. The survey stated that job seekers in the services industry  sectors--finance, insurance, realty, manufacturing,  mining and construction--can look forward to the most  favourable hiring environment during the April-June timeframe. Moreover, job prospects in the Asia Pacific region continue to remain strong, with the exception of Japan. Hiring outlook  continues to improve modestly in most of the American region. Employer hiring intentions are strongest in India, Brazil and  Taiwan, while in the US these remain unchanged from three  months ago period, but are more optimistic compared to  last year this time, Manpower said. "The growing confidence could be attributed to robust industrial  output, a continuous surge in demand in consumer goods,  auto sector and bounceback in IT and ITeS sectors," Pandit  said about India. Employers in finance, insurance and real estate sectors also report  a four percentage point improvement in net employment outlook  over the last quarter. The softest hiring pace in India is reported by employers  in the transportation and utilities sector (28 per cent) while  employers in the manufacturing sector (38 per cent) have  reported substantial improvement in their quarter-over-quarter  (QoQ) hiring outlook. Moreover, companies in all four regions of the country expect  year-over-year hiring activity to improve considerably, to  42 per cent in the east, 40 per cent in the west, 37 per cent  in the north and 40 per cent in the south. The survey is conducted on a quarterly basis to measure  employers' intentions to increase or decrease the number of  employees in heir workforce during the next quarter. According  to the survey, globally employers in 27 out of 36 countries and  territories expect positive hiring activity in Q2, while those in eight  report negative outlook. The results of the survey are based on interviews with over  5,381 employers in India.

India most optimistic nation on hiring in Q2: Manpower

9 Mar 2010, 1439 hrs IST, PTI;

NEW DELHI: India continued to be the most optimistic nation in terms of hiring plans for the next three months, driven by strong job opportunities across all sectors including finance and realty sectors, global staffing services firm Manpower said. 

According to the quarterly 'Employment Outlook Survey', India Inc's hiring outlook improved by four percentage points for the April-June period compared to the previous quarter. 

"With Net Employment Outlook of 39 per cent, Indian employers report the most optimistic forecast among all 36 countries and territories participating in the survey," it said. 

"Employers remain optimistic on account of strong domestic growth. We are witnessing improved opportunities for job seekers across all industry sectors with employers indicating that hiring in India's Services and Finance, Insurance & Real Estate sectors will accelerate in the months ahead, " Manpower India Managing Director Sanjay Pandit said. 

India has been reporting the strongest hiring plans globally since the third quarter of 2008. 

The survey stated that job seekers in the services industry sector --finance, insurance, realty, manufacturing sector and mining & construction, can look forward to the most favourable hiring environment in the April-June time frame. 

Moreover, job prospects in the Asia Pacific region remain strong, with the exception of Japan, and hiring outlook continue to improve modestly in most of the American region. Source: ET

India to step up hiring from 2010: Manpower

PTI 8 December 2009, 03:15pm IST


NEW DELHI: India has once again emerged as the most optimistic nation in terms of hiring plans for the next three months and the recruitment pace is expected to return to the pre-recession level in the new year, global staffing services firm Manpower says. 

"There is no more 'cautious optimism' among employers anymore, it has given way to 'definite optimism'. Besides, the pace of hiring will be back to the 2007 level in the next year," Manpower India Managing Director Naresh Malhan said.

According to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, India has a net employment outlook -- a measure of recruiting plans -- of 39 per cent for the first quarter of 2010, the highest among 35 countries surveyed. India has been reporting the strongest hiring plans globally since the third quarter of 2008.

India's outlook has improved by 11 percentage points on a quarter-on-quarter basis and by 18 per cent year-on-year.

A sectoral analysis shows that hiring outlook has risen across all sectors. Job seekers in the services, public administration, education, mining and construction, finance, insurance, real estate, and the wholesale and retail trade sector, could look forward to the most favourable hiring environment in early 2010, the survey said.

"The good news is that employer hiring expectations across all industry sectors are improving in the first quarter of 2010, and job seekers in key industry sectors can look forward to the most favourable hiring environment in over a year," Malhan said.  Source: The Times of India; 8 December 2009

'Hiring momentum to pick up in 2010'

Mini Joseph Tejaswi, TNN 26 December 2009, 01:44am IST


BANGALORE: After a long hibernation of 18 months, headhunters are actively out in the market as talent requirements have started trickling in. The hiring momentum is expected to pick up from April onwards. 

Even in a worst scenario, calendar 2010 will create around 50,000 fresh IT/ITES jobs against zero fresh jobs — except a very thin campus hiring — in the previous year. The calendar 2007 had witnessed a bumper hiring at over 3 lakh while the growth got tapered off towards the third quarter of 2008 clocking a total hiring of only 1.8 lakh.

B S Murthy, CEO, Leadership Capital says the new year will usher in recovery and a wave of general optimism across segments. "This means a complete change from the current skeletal and need-based hiring. The large volume-hiring realm (services space) will warm up by the second quarter of calender 2010. A 15% increment in hiring volumes is expected in the first two quarters while the growth could cross 20% or double towards third and fourth quarter."

According to Nirupama V G, MD, AdAstra, requirements will start pouring in like tsunami, HR departments of many corporates have already geared up for large scale hiring after a long standstill. "Normalcy will return to the industry by April. In addition to domestic hiring, India is going to emerge as a huge sourcing ground for global jobs across segments, positions and profiles."

"When we enjoy a vantage position in human resources, talent is still a scare commodity in global markets. The year 2010 is going to be bright year for India in terms of domestic and global placements," adds Mohan Menon, CEO, Sentient Consulting. Source: The Times of India