Companies optimistic on hiring in first half of 2019: Naukri

Naukri.com has some good news for job seekers in India. A majority 84% of the 3,310 recruiters surveyed by the country’s largest jobs portal, see a rise in hiring activity in the first half of 2019.

The survey anticipates a 20% increase in hiring activity between January to June this year, compared to the second half of 2018.

The bi-annual survey sees the growth in recruitment coming from new job creation and replacement hiring especially in the IT, BFSI and BPO sectors.

While 56% of the survey respondents expect both new job creation and replacement hiring in their organisations to open up opportunities for job seekers, 28% anticipate mostly new job creation, and 12% will look at only replacement hiring. Only 1% of the respondents expect lay-offs.

“Key industries have continued to show growth. The same has been demonstrated by the Naukri JobSpeak. The momentum gained for recruitment is likely to continue into the new year,” said Sumeet Singh, chief marketing officer, InfoEdge India Ltd, the holding company of Naukri.com.

Almost half of the recruiters who were surveyed said that the hiring activities will be highest in sales and marketing followed by IT-Software functional areas. Apart from these, a quarter of the recruiters have stated that hiring will also be high in operations, HR and accounts domains, the report noted.

While job seekers with less than five years of experience will be in high demand during the period under consideration, recruiters surveyed by Naukri.com also expressed concerns about a shortage of talent.

“Recruiters (42% of those surveyed) predict that the issue of talent crunch could intensify in the next six months. Another 31% of the recruiters said that although talent crunch will continue, the intensity would be the same as the last six months. The maximum talent crunch is expected to be in the experience band of 3-5 years,” the report stated.

It is also that time of the year when employees are rewarded with salary hikes and promotions based on their performance. A third of all recruiters surveyed by Naukri.com said that the rate of increment would be anywhere between 10-15%.