Companies to firm up hiring plans depending on poll results, says Monster.com MD

Sanjay Modi, Managing Director (India, Middle East, Southeast Asia) at Monster.com, talks to Business Today about the possibility of a stable government and a positive rollout of policies after the general elections. This will help bring back business confidence, leading to positive hiring trends.

Q. Given the downturn, what is the recruitment trend? What are the employers looking for in employees?

Modi: As per the Monster Employment Index, the initial months of 2013 saw positive, but single-digit annual growth rates, but reported negative rates thereafter. Clearly, the employers in India have adopted a cautious approach in hiring under the current economic scenario. We have observed sharp slowdown in sectors like Production and Manufacturing, Automotive/Ancillaries/Tyres, Engineering, Cement, Construction, and Iron/Steel in line with the continuous contraction in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). Although still not buoyant, the hiring trend appears to be gradually improving with the gap in year-on-year recruitment activity narrowing.

Q. Which sectors have witnessed shrinkages in employment?

Modi: Giving a year-on-year view, IT led, while NGO/Social Services saw the most dramatic plunge. Among major sectors, Automotive/Ancillaries/Tyres charted one of the steepest declines in December 2013, down 13 per cent. Manufacturing and Commerce also reported a gloomy picture with Production and Manufacturing, and Logistic, Courier/Freight/ Transportation registering an eight and 10 per cent decline respectively. Hiring activity in Banking/Financial Services, and Insurance sectors continued to be buoyant. Engineering, Cement, Construction, and Iron/Steel exhibited marginal growth, while BPO/ITeS witnessed the fourth successive annual decline.

Q. How would you compare global recruitments with that in India?

Modi: India's economy has exhibited one of the slowest rates of growth in a decade. While hiring activity in 2013 has been at a slower pace, the country still fares better than its global peers. Despite the economic challenges, the hiring sentiment appears positive. Not much traction is expected in the job market in the first half of the calendar year 2014 and it will be business as usual. Depending on the electoral outcome, the companies are expected to firm up their business and hiring plans for the second half of the year. In the first six months, the companies are likely to continue hiring for critical job profiles as they have been in the last few months of 2013. India has the most optimistic hiring plans for the fourth quarter across the globe. As far as hiring goes, India has always been better than the European countries. While the European market is still suffering, the US is showing signs of improvement in the last two-to-three months.

Q. Which sectors are hiring the most?

Modi: Telecom/ISP saw the maximum growth in month-on-month hiring activity in December 2013. Among others, IT, Media and Entertainment, Banking/Financial Services, and Insurance exhibited significant growth in online demand and were among the top six gainers. Online hiring activity contracted the most in Government/PSU/Defence, which, along with Shipping/Marine, recorded a negative growth. Online hiring in the Oil/Gas/Petroleum, and Power (up 20 per cent) appear to have rebounded as the sectors marked the second positive month-on-month as well as year-on-year growth, following an 18-month low. In the longer term, however, IT has exhibited the most endearing growth.

(In cities) Kolkata was the top gainer month-on-month and also the only city to record a double-digit growth rate. Among major job markets, Delhi-NCR, Bangalore and Hyderabad made it to the top five. Mumbai and Chennai each, on the other hand, recorded a two per cent growth in recruitment activity. Ahmedabad has recorded the maximum growth in online recruitment year-on-year.

Q. Are more graduates opting for entrepreneurship on account of less attractive or decreasing number of dream jobs?

Modi: Saying that jobs are becoming less attractive would be wrong. There is no correlation between jobs and the new start-ups. Today, the financial support for start-ups is available much more easily than before. There are people who are ready to invest behind a good idea. As a result, graduates today are building strong ideas, willing to take risks, and starting their own projects. We see it as the Indian graduate population becoming bolder in terms of setting up their own businesses. Be a big fish in the small pond, start a small company, and get in the lead role is the trend that has picked up.

Q. What has been the response to rozgarduniya.com?

Modi: Rozgarduniya.com is a critical initiative from Monster.com. We currently have approximately 16,000 jobseekers in our database. With rozgarduniya.com, we are trying to understand the blue-collared business needs and matching them with the right seekers. Today, what we are seeing is that there are challenges with employability rather than the employment opportunities. We are restrategising on this initiative and you will soon hear more on this from us.