Jobs Wanted/Available

IT and ITeS companies wanted either experienced personnel or was focused on cost cutting measures.

A few of the IT companies have even put their Bengal plans on hold.

Although the financial turmoil has not yet prompted large-scale sackings in Salt Lake's sector V, the IT hub for Kolkata, the general notion is that trainee jobs have dried up.

A slowdown in hiring and pay-hike squeeze had been forecast by the IT industry association, Nasscom, confirming the worst fears of young professionals.

"The attrition rates have come down by at least six to seven per cent in the past few months because of the market condition. This will surely slow down hiring," said Som Mittal, the president of Nasscom.

The industry is working very hard to improve utilisation of resources, which will also have an impact on the need for fresh manpower.

Besides a good salary, the government is also offering job contract for two years. Headhunters, appointed by the government have started scouting for 1,000 professionals for 34 functional areas specified by the Games secretariat.

The organising committee has appointed three headhunters -- ABC Consultants, Ma Foi Management Consultants and a consortium of TeamLease and PeopleStrong -- for these jobs. Headhunters have begun the recruiting process for about 1,000 jobs across all levels of senior, middle and junior management roles. A senior official in the organising committee, who did not wish to be identified, said that selected vendors have been appointed to suggest names and budgets for professionals that need to be recruited. "We have begun recruiting and interviews are being conducted for top posts," he told ET.

The government has still not made the financial disclosure on salaries that are being offered, but the selected headhunters suggest that there is a lot of excitement to work, for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, across all sectors. Shiv Agarwal, chief executive officer of ABC Consultants said that even though the job will be offered for two-year contract, industry professionals consider this as a fine opportunity to work for a truly global level sporting event.

ASSOCHAM President Sajjan Jindal told reporters after a meeting of the Managing Committee of the body that companies had already promised to invest Rs 49,078 crore in Tamil Nadu over the next few years.

While real estate topped the investments with Rs 17,131 crore from major developers such as Rakindo and Mahindra World City, automotive investments touched Rs 3,510 crore, he said pointing out at Ford's plans for a small car production facility and an enegine manufacturing unit in Maraimalai Nagar near Chennai by three years and others.

The power sector saw private companies announcing investments to the tune of Rs.2,200 crore, he said.

On the current global meltdown, Jindal said ASSOCHAM was confident the country would be able to clock eight per cent growth rate since services and agriculture sectors contributed "greatly to the project growth rate".

In fact, most of the corporates had lined up the lay-offs in a phased manner much before Diwali but they deferred their restructuring on humanitarian reasons, an industry analysis by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) has shown.

These seven sectors studied by the chamber were steel, cement, ITES/BPO, financial and brokerage services, construction, real estate and aviation to begin with. Their promoters, according to the Assocham study, were no longer in a position to sustain their operations with existing manpower strength.

The analysis, `Jobs Scenario Post-Diwali', was based on its direct interaction with the players concerned in the identified sectors.

The human resources heads of all the seven industry segments had drawn up conclusive plans to curtail their workforce by 25 to 30 per cent, which was likely to be announced in the next 10 days or so, Assocham president, Mr Sajjan Jindal, said releasing the anaalysis here today.

Quoting the findings of the study, Mr Jindal emphasised that although curtailing workforce for any management was an extremely painful decision, employers had no other alternatives.

"Foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) have increased considerably in the recent years from about 3.46 million in 2004 to 5.08 million in 2007. During January and July 2008, the FTA was around 3.14 million as compared to 2.38 million during the corresponding period of previous year," Prabhakar Dubey, director in the ministry, said at a conference here.

Along with FTAs, the number of domestic tourists have also risen from 366 million in 2004 to 526 million last year.

"Tourism has become an important segment of the economy. Around 950 million jobs are expected to be created by 2010 in the sector," Dubey said.

The ministry, he said, has launched rural tourism schemes through community participation and about 130 rural project sites have been identified in 27 States to promote traditional rural arts, crafts and culture to attract visitors and provide them with authentic and traditional experience.

This measure, aimed at having a lean and mean force and improve the combat effectiveness by bringing down the age profile of commanding officers, was part of the Ajay Vikram Singh committee report.

The need for such a revamp was felt in the wake of the Kargil War in 1999, when it was found that the commanding officers of the battalions were older as compared to their counterparts in Pakistan Army and for that matter armies of many advanced countries including Israel and the US. Moreover, most of these officers were stagnating at a particular rank for a long time thereby affecting their efficiency and involvement in the job.

Lt Colonels and Majors form the cutting edge of the Army and do the actual fighting in the rugged terrain, be it Kargil, dense jungles of north-east or the deserts and have to be young and able to handle the stress and rigours of combat.

The first part of the report was implemented in 2004 to provide better career opportunities to officers of the rank of Lieutenant to Lt Colonel. The second part of the report implemented on Friday covered Colonel, Brigadier, Major General and Lt General and their equivalent in the Navy and Air Force.

"With India's 34-year nuclear isolation now history, the opportunity for US companies today is tremendous, with a potential $150 billion of new investment. If US companies are allowed to compete, a modest share of that business could support 2,50,000 high-tech American jobs," Chamber Chairman R Bruce Josten said in a letter to all Senators and Representatives.

In the Chamber's estimation, US companies could greatly benefit from India's expected 30,000 to 60,000 MW of new nuclear generating capacity by 2030.

"Moreover, the nuclear business would be a fraction of the broader commercial gain across all sectors after this foundation, established of mutual trust and respect, is laid," Josten said and referred to the fact that it was the General Electric which made the first reactor for India's civil nuclear programme back in 1961.

The US Chamber, which happens to be the world's largest business federation representing more than three million businesses, sought to allay fear among lawmakers over any undue delay in passage, saying: "It is crucial that Congress act. French and Russian firms are already working in India, yet US firms cannot engage until Congressional approval of the 123 Agreement."

According to industry estimates, while salaries for manufacturing and automobiles graduates from reputed schools can go up to Rs 6 lakh a year, real estate firms do not mind paying between Rs 12 and 15 lakh a year! Everyone in this business seems to be earning more. Vice-presidents in the companies earn Rs 50-60 lakh a year whereas senior managers in the automotive business earn between Rs 18 and 30 lakh a year. And to top it all, the sector offers a slew of incentives.

The Ma Foi Employment Trends Survey (METS), conducted by Ma Foi, one of India's largest HR consultancy firm, has predicted a 3 per cent increase in employment in 2008. The largest chunk of new jobs, according to the survey, would be generated by the Real Estate and hospitality sector, riding high with the tourism boom in the country.

Interestingly, even within the sector, there are surprises because it's not always the top firms that pay most. Mid-tier and not-so-established real estate developers established tend to offer higher salaries, as it is tougher for these companies to attract experienced professionals. "The main attraction for joining realty sector is the tempting incentives that are offered on striking a deal. Eventually, your incentives could outrun the regular salary!" says Sanjeev Kumar, HR officer with real estate company, Ramaprastha.

The booming construction industry in the country suffers due to a lack of skilled manpower to execute big projects. Clearly, a greater focus on the training of manpower and collaboration with educational institutions is a must, said panelists at the seminar organised by The Economic Times in association with Sujana Metal Products Limited.

For starters, the construction industry is largely unorganised and employs over 31 million people. The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has estimated that the industry needs to add at least five million people every year to execute projects that are being planned across various infrastructure sectors in the country.

Clearly, given the large-scale activity in the infrastructure sector, demand outstrips supply. If the gap is not bridged, it would lead to time- and cost-overrun, held the panelists. "The shortage is so intense that the industry has started employing expatriates at lower, middle and higher levels as well," said PriceWaterhouse partner Ramakrishna Pachigolla.

One of the biggest real estate developers in the country, for instance, plans to bring back over 20,000 Indian construction workers employed in West Asia. Another company is on course to hire 40,000 Chinese workers for its gas pipeline project.

But the panelists felt that there are ways out to tackle the challenge here. First, promote civil engineering as a good career choice. Two, make the remuneration package attractive for these engineers to check possible attrition.

The surging investment announcements by major corporates worth Rs10,50 trillion for the first six months of 2008, is expected to generate 163,770 direct employment opportunities for the next 3-4 years, according to a report prepared by ASSOCHAM Investment Meter (AIM). The report titled "India Inc Investing... A Mid Year Report" brushing aside concerns of an economic slowdown, says that capital expenditure by Indian companies reflects a positive outlook.

The findings of the report also reveals that sectors like Textiles, IT, Real Estate and Financial Services are expected to create maximum job openings in the next few years. "The course of the economy over the past six months shaped by whopping capex plans show signs of feel good factor among the industrialists of the economy. The massive investments announcements in the past six months will provide a boost to the overall employment situation in the country," Sajjan Jindal, President, ASSOCHAM said.

With the recent investment boom in the economy, Rayon Fashion Ltd. with a plan to set up fabric and garment making facilities in the state of Maharashtra is expected to provide employment to around 82,000 persons by the end of this fiscal.

According to ASSOCHAM report, the IT SEZ to be set up in Jaipur by Genpact is expected to generate 30,000 employment opportunities. With a mega integrated township coming up in the city of Chennai, Mahindra World City plans to employ around 15,000 workforce for the next five years. Religare Finvest, announced that it would require around 10,000 personnel, which plans to open up 200 exclusive personal financial services stores.

Himalya International ltd. announced job opportunities of 6,000 persons for setting up the first agri SEZ and food park. Having a strong manufacturing base, the state of Tamil Nadu is expected to generate maximum job opportunities in cities like Chengalpattu, Madurai, Dharampuri district. The state of West Bengal also saw generation of employment opportunities with companies going for investments announcements in districts of Kalyani, Silgiri, Kharagpur.

Apart from that, Tier I cities of Hyderabad and Bangalore with investments announcements pouring in, is expected to offer employment opportunities in sectors such as real estate and IT.

Speaking at a two-day international seminar organised by the Maharashtra Economic Development Corporation on `SEZs in India -- Major Leap Forward', he said that the SEZs would create eight lakh jobs next year as compared to 2.15 lakh currently .

"From the current Rs 77,000 crore, we expect investments in SEZs to cross Rs 2,00,000 crore by 2009," Pillai said.

"We are happy to say that that investments are coming into industries that earlier did not attract investments, such as leather." he added.

In 2007-08, SEZs reported exports worth Rs 66,638 crore, up by 92 per cent over the previous year.

So far the 513 formal approvals have been accorded to SEZs out of which notifications have been issued for 250 SEZs.

As the US economy goes from bad to worse, India's biggest outsourcing customer is getting stingy about placing new orders.

Why hirings are down

• The IT-BPO industry, which generates $40 billion (Rs 1.72 lakh crore) in export revenue and employs 2 million people, has been hit by slowing growth.
  
• The US, which accounts for 70% of India's outsourcing orders, is cutting IT budgets.
  
• IBM hasn't recruited at all this year from Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, from where it picked 66 students last year.

• Join the right company, not the one that pays you the most.
  
• Invest in skill, competence on your own, don't outsource it to the company.
  
• Work hard. You can't take it easy at such a time.
  
• Have patience, the good times will return.
  

The result: IT firms are hiring less and offering less as they pick talent from campuses.

In some cases, they are even refusing to go through with offers they've already made.

This is the first time since the outsourcing boom began a decade ago that IT companies are dragging their feet on campus hiring, placement officers at colleges across India told Hindustan Times.

"This year, there has been a 15 per cent drop in hiring from our campus," said Colonel P. Ramesh at Pune-based Army Institute of Technology, from where only 194 students were picked this year, compared to 232 last year The drop was sharper at Pune Vidyarthi Griha - down to 131 from 260 last year, said A.M.

Speaking on the sideline of CII ICT seminar, Shantanu Ghosh, senior VP and business leader of Genpact, said, "We have over 16 centres now in India employing over 25,000 people. But for our future projects, we are looking at handling maximum voice and non-voice projects at the Kolkata centre."

Currently, it has 750 people at its Kolkata centre.

"Currently our domestic business is negligible but we are aiming at a significant growth as we take on more Indian clients who we would cater to from our India centres itself. So far we were managing global outsourced projects from other locations. But now we plan to get into India to India business. All the growing sectors will be potential clients for us for who we would manage the back office," Sarkar said.

The company, which posted a global turnover of $823 million, plans to grow revenues by 28 per cent.Genpact is also looking at opening 2-3 centres every year.

It is estimated that around 24 lakh people applied for 20,000 clerical posts advertised by the State Bank of India showing that there are more takers for a career in banking. This is specially so as bank wages are likely to be revised by the end of the current fiscal, for which negotiations are going on between the unions, Indian banks association and finance ministry.

The hiring is expected to go up significantly in 2008-09 due to an increase in business opportunities in retail banking, marketing and expansion in rural banking.

According to the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF), which is conducting examinations for the banking sector, it has been receiving requests to conduct recruitments from a number of banks for next year and there will be a mega recruitment drive in the early 2009.

Interestingly, the hiring is getting broad-based, bringing in specialists along with generalists for various cadre posts.

The findings will be used in capacity building programmes, including setting up of new training institutions and determining the quantum of interest-free education loans that the state has kept aside for training its youth.

"We outsourced a professional career counselling organisation based in Calcutta for the job," said L.N. Pradhan, the director of capacity building, a new wing under the department of personnel, which was set up a year ago. The study report would also help in developing human resources required in various sectors, he added.

"Right now, a gap exists between the number of openings available in the public and private sectors and the number of skilled people from the state that can fill these slots. The survey will be useful at a time when the shift from farming to other secondary and tertiary professions has started," Pradhan told The Telegraph here from Gangtok.