India to see 7% rise in job creation in Oct-Mar period

India is likely to see a 7.12% increase in job creation in the half-year beginning October as hiring sentiment improves on the back of reforms like corporate tax cut, said a report.

The bi-annual Employment Outlook Report by human resources company TeamLease Services said the sluggish economy, however, has caused the net employment outlook (NEO) to fall by 4% to 91%. NEO is the difference between the number of respondents inclined to hire and those who aren’t over six months expressed as a percentage of the total number of respondents. “The GDP growth forecast for Q2, 2019-20, seems to have contributed to this drop,” the report said.

TeamLease’s survey covered 744 small, medium and large companies across 19 sectors in India and 76 businesses across global markets.

In India, seven sectors showed upticks in NEO: healthcare and pharmaceuticals, information technology, and e-commerce and tech startups reported a 3% increase; educational services, a 2% rise; and knowledge process outsourcing, power and energy, and logistics, a 1% rise.

“The gains in sentiment by seven sectors, thanks to paradigm-altering economic reforms that included a more progressive corporate tax regime, strategic disinvestments, and labour reforms, was the silver lining,” the report says.

However, manufacturing, engineering, and infrastructure reported an 8% drop in employment outlook; construction and real estate, a 5% fall; and financial services, a 4% drop.

“Eight out of the 19 sectors are expected to witness a double-digit rise in job creation. Logistics and educational services alone will add 14.36% more jobs during the period October-March, 2019-20, indicating the dip in the net employment outlook to be more of a passing phase,” says Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder and executive vice president, TeamLease Services.

There was a 3% increase in hiring intent for junior and senior-level roles, the report said, adding that tier 2 towns showed a 2% increase in hiring sentiment.

The report said that despite trade pact talks and rate cuts by central banks across the world, Europe saw a 3% drop in NEO; Africa and the Americas, 2%. The Middle East and Asia-Pacific, which “weathered global headwinds and stayed strong”, saw a 1% increase.