MUMBAI: The Indian automobile sector is set to witness a pickup in hiring over the next 12 months, largely driven by the passenger vehicle segment which has seen many launches in the last year in addition to the advent of new technologies in areas such as electrified and driverless vehicles. A recent study carried out by HR services firm PeopleStrong predicts the automobile industry to hire 8-12% more employees in fiscal 2019 than this year. Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors , India’s top two vehicle makers, will together add as many as 4,500 employees in the next fiscal year starting April to deal with their growing product portfolio and sales.Tata Motors, India’s largest automaker by revenue, is set to add around 1,500 white-collars employees, including campus hires, and another about 2,000 blue-collar workers in functions such as technology, engineering, sales, customer care and manufacturing, said Gajendra Chandel, chief human resources officer. Maruti Suzuki will hire about 1,000 people in FY19, a top company official said. “We were holding back some of this hiring as we have been going through our transformation programme as well as driving productivity improvement,” said Chandel.Over the next two-three years, the company is looking to hire 2,500 white-collar employees, including the 1,500 it plans for fiscal 2019, he said. Most of the 2,500 bluecollar workers it plans to recruit will come on board in the next year itself. The headcount addition includes replacement against natural attrition and retirement. “Maruti Suzuki has outpaced industry in growth…In line with the growth, momentum and buoyancy there is an uptick in hiring too,” said a company spokesperson.Last year, the hiring at Tata Motors was largely for replacement, but this year it’s much higher and incremental in order to manage growth, said Chandel.The bulk of the hiring will be at entry levels. However, there will be opportunities in niche areas across the middle and senior levels as well.“Hiring at the leadership level and middle-management level may be very limited as we have put in place a robust succession planning process,” Chandel said, adding that most of the recruitment would be at the entry and juniormanagement levels.“Automotive is one of those sectors which seems to be on the way to revival as far as hiring intent is concerned,” said Pankaj Bansal, the chief executive at HR company PeopleStrong.A bulk of the hiring will be concentrated in the research and development (R&D) segment with a lot of it happening in areas of design, engine and fuel side. The R&D segment will see a 12-15% increase in fiscal 2019 in hiring, according to the PeopleStrong study, titled India Hiring Intent. “There will be increased opportunities in manufacturing, engineering and other emerging areas,” said Stephen Sudhakar, senior vice president–administration at Hyundai Motor India, the country’s second-largest carmaker.Rajeshwar Tripathi, the chief people officer at Mahindra & Mahindra, said new recruitment would be more based on talent and skill with the company looking at new skills largely in the area of digital.“Focus on electronics and metatronics is going up in manufacturing and mechanical is coming down a little,” he said, adding that the company was hiring people in digital and technology from startups and sectors such as consumer durables.Nissan, too, has seen an increased demand for talent in automation and digital space. “In order to achieve our future business objectives, in the next two-three years we are looking at hiring around 5-8% per annum in middlemanagement and leadership positions across functions such as product planning, quality, CRM, sales and digital,” said Jayakumar David, the director for human resources at Renault-Nissan Alliance India.