The much-talked-about ‘Make in India’ campaign of the ruling NDA government might take some time to fuel growth in the Indian job market. The early sense of euphoria around the concept has been replaced by cautious optimism, say recruiters.
While, on one hand, the rate of job growth in most labour-intensive sectors, such as manufacturing and infrastructure, has been restricted to single digit; that in sectors such as IT and ITeS has been close to 13-14 per cent over the last year.
Recent surveys estimate India’s yearly job creation requirement over the next decade to be close to 10-15 million a year. This kind of job creation will only be possible by creating the right environment for growth in the private, non-farm and SME (small and medium enterprises) sectors.
According to V Suresh, Executive Vice-President and National Head, Sales, naukri.com, while at the macro strategic level things are looking up, there is a sense of cautious optimism.
“Many measures that the government may have initiated will take some time to trickle down to grassroots level. But I hope the job market will get better from here if the intent is converted into action.”
B-school story
The dichotomy — development in a few sectors, while others lag — is best exemplified by the bonanza of jobs available for B-schoolers in IT and e.comm even as the Make in India campaign plods along.
Top-rung B-schools, such as IIM (Indian Institute of Management) Calcutta and XLRI, Jamshedpur, not only received unprecedented offers but also placed their batches of outgoing students in record time.
IIM-C achieved 100 per cent final placements for the batch of 2013-15 in an all-time record duration of 2.5 days. The batch, consisting of 438 students, the largest among the older IIMs, received 501 offers during the entire process — including 143 through lateral hiring, 224 in finals and 134 through pre-placement offers (PPOs).
The final recruitment process at XLRI saw participation from 108 recruiters, including 45 new recruiters, and 321 offers were made for 300 students over three-and-a-half days. Finance and consulting firms hired in large numbers from both these institutes.
According to Rajiv Mishra, Chairperson, Placement, XLRI, while placements have been better than in previous years, there has been no drastic improvement. E-commerce is one of the sectors to have witnessed a high uptake. “Manufacturing, banking and finance have been muted; however, at XLRI we have not experienced the slowdown,” he said.
Make in India campaign
According to Kunal Sen, senior vice-president, TeamLease Services, hiring growth during the April-September 2015 period would be close to 11.3 per cent, slightly lower than the 12.8 per cent growth during the six-month period (October 2014-March 2015).
“We did a survey of about 1,000 corporates for over a month post the Budget to assess their hiring plans. Things are not looking any better and cautiousness continues,” Sen said.
The much-talked-about ‘Make in India’ campaign of the Modi government, which promised significant job creation in the manufacturing and automation sectors, is yet to translate into any real and effective measures, industry experts pointed out.
Sector-wise, IT will continue to be the top recruiter followed by e-commerce. Consumer durables and health and pharmaceuticals will also witness a double-digit growth in hiring.
“Job growth in manufacturing and infrastructure sectors has been a little slow and that is pulling down the average growth to 11-12 per cent. The Make in India campaign has not really taken off. There is a lag effect and things might start looking up post September,” Sen said.
Skill development
There is an urgent need to undertake certain concrete measures to push through labour reforms and encourage skill development. “It is important to make sure that the young kids are made employable and industry-ready by giving thrust on skill development,” he pointed out.
The ushering in of achche din, as promised by the Modi government, will depend on how well it tackles the three road-blocks to job creation which includes poor infrastructure, labour law and alignment of States with the overall growth agenda.