India will become the third most optimistic market in Oct-Dec 2017 for skilled candidates, a survey by ManpowerGroup showed. (Image: Reuters)

Indian job seekers can finally have a sigh of relief as hiring prospects, which had hit a new low in the previous quarters, are expected to rebound slightly between October and December making India the third most optimistic market for skilled candidates, a survey by a prominent HR consultancy ManpowerGroup showed. Albeit, the pace would remain slower as compared to the same period a year ago. The hiring sentiments would remain 12 per cent lower than the same period last year but would recover 5 per cent from the previous quarter, the survey showed.

Source: ManpowerGroup

Marred by the demonetisation and the global slowdown, India witnessed low employers’ confidence and subsequently, lower hiring. The data, available from July 2016, show that there was 35 per cent increase in the hiring in Jul-Sep 2016, but it continuously fell afterwards to 31 per cent in Oct-Dec 2016, 23 per cent in Jan-Mar 2017, 17 per cent in Apr-Jun 2017 and 14 per cent in Jul- Sep 2017.

The ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey covered 5,005 employers across India who were asked about the upcoming employment opportunities.

“Looking at the current positive outlook of the economy, e-commerce giants are in the process of ramping up workforce across various functions, particularly engineers and other specialists with an intention to be technology, product, and engineering-driven companies,” said ManpowerGroup’s India Managing Director AG Rao.

Skills will be the driver

The HR solution firm, however, suggests that it would not be easy to gain the desired momentum due to a huge gap between skills needed on the job and those possessed by job seekers. Aspirants with industry knowledge and practical intelligence are likely to benefit in the third quarter.

A joint report by FICCI and NASSCOM also stresses on the changing hiring environment, which would soon require completely different skill sets. According to the report, the internet and exponential technologies are creating new employment opportunities in the areas of ‘white-collar’ working, also known as gig economy — online labour – software developers, creative and multimedia professionals, online sales and marketing professionals, writers, translators and data entry operators.

Source: FICCI

By 2020, 60-65 per cent of the workforce in the IT sector and 50-55 per cent in the automotive sector would work with radically different skill sets. Future job opportunities will be higher in these roles: VFX Artist, Computer Vision Engineer, Wireless Network Specialist, Embedded System Programmer, Data Scientist, Data Architect, AI Research Scientist, Automobile Analytics Engineer, 3D Printing Technician, Vehicle Cybersecurity Expert, Sustainability Integration Expert etc.

Third most optimistic for job creation

The hiring sentiment in India is third most optimistic after Japan and Taiwan, and will witness a good jump from the previous quarter as compared to other countries. Only Singapore, which has been ranked sixth by the ManpowerGroup, will see a better increase than India.

Source: ManpowerGroup

Even though Japan and Taiwan are ranked higher than India, they will witness a fall in their hiring percentage. India, Singapore, and China will gain significantly from the previous quarter.

Industry-wise estimated increase in hiring:

In India, the services sector is going to be the biggest job market and will increase its hiring by 23 per cent in Oct-Dec 2017. In the previous quarter, it had only 15 per cent increase. The services sector will be followed by the transportation and utilities sector.

Source: ManpowerGroup

Public administration and education, and wholesale and retail trade will witness lower job creation as compared to the previous quarter. The real estate sector will create the least number of jobs but will fare better than the previous quarter.

Not just the job market but India’s GDP is also going to recover from the aftermath of the demonetisation and the implementation of the GST, which had pit India to its lowest in three years at 5.7 per cent in the fiscal first quarter. A Nomura research report estimated India’s GDP to grow 7.1 per cent year-on-year.