LEAP YEAR A million new jobs. The best salary hikes in the Asia-Pacific region that will fatten purses of employees by 10 per cent on average. After the gloom of the slowdown, the sun appears to be shining again on India in 2010

It's the time of year when management graduates across the counry put on their best ties and head out to campus interviews. If they've been good students, they do so in been good students, they do so in expectation of salaries with as many digits as telephone numbers.

Last year was a bad year. The Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, the country's top man- agement institute, took a record nine days to place its graduating batch. Even then, salaries were down by 25 to 33 per cent compared to 2008.

This year, the smiles are back. "We cannot say the offers were through the roof, but compared to last year, the num- ber of offers and packages has increased", says Himanshu Nema, a second year student and student head of the IIM-A placement committee.

Campuses around the country expect a better show this year. IIM Calcutta's campus recruitment began yesterday.

This year, 95 companies have turned up, compared to 80 last year, and more are expected. Prafull Agnihotri, chair- man of the placement and career devel- opment cell at IIM-C, says, "According to me, salary figures will not touch the 2008 mark, but students will definite- ly bag 20 per cent more than what was offered to them last year".

With inputs from Kamayani Singh in Delhi, Prasad Nichenametla in Ahmedabad, Salil Mekaad in Bangalore and Mou Chakraborty in Kolkata

mahua.venkatesh@hindustantimes.com

Source: Hindustan Times by Mahua Venkatesh We Bring Good News  - Expect Jobs & Hikes

• WHERE ARE THE JOBS?

• Engineers and MBAs are back in demand.

• THE MACRO VIEW

• LOOK WHO'S BACK

2009 was a defining year for several professionals and the job market witnessed a return of sanity after the three year bull phase. Senior professionals chastened by the past experience of excessively focusing on compensation and thereby making short term career calls are now looking to focus on the long term. Across the board, compensation levels were either static or witnessed modest single digit increases during the year and will continue to remain so as companies may not go overboard this time around. However, we are seeing big spikes in variable compensation even across traditional sectors as companies prefer to pay more for performance and keep fixed costs under check. Stock options which had temporarily lost its sheen are seen to be back in vogue.

The financial services sector bore the brunt of the slowdown. The retail financial services and broking businesses witnessed job losses as most banks and NBFCs wound up unprofitable lines. However, the wholesale and investment banking businesses have continued to hire selectively especially in the area of debt capital markets and related areas. We expect the situation to turn around across the sector gradually by the third quarter of the year. Compensation and bonuses in the sector have come under intense scrutiny from the regulators and are unlikely to see major upheavals in the near term, though in relative terms, executives in the sector continue to be the highest paid.

Looking forward, we expect the power and heavy infrastructure sectors to continue its robust growth spurring demand for professionals in the areas of project management, especially mega projects and CFOs with big ticket fund raising expertise apart from project specific niche areas. Further, we have seen increased demand for expatriate executives and returning Indians as local expertise is lacking or non existent in new growth sectors like power, airport infrastructure and allied areas which have been opened up to the private sector. However, the commercial and residential real estate sector which witnessed steep erosion in capital values seems to be limping back to action, but the outlook still seems hazy.

By K Sudarshan,
Managing Partner-India,
EMA Partners International.

Source: Economic Times 'No scarcity of job opportunities in 2010'

Chairman of the confederation Udit Raj charged the government of being apathetic towards the demands of SCs and STs, and said he and other members of the organisation would fast-unto-death from December 15.

He said that marginalisation of people in the lower strata of society was the primary reason behind the demand for separate states and urged the government to address their problems.

Raj said there were several competent SC/ST candidates, but they were unemployed as private sectors did not have reservation for them.

"The private sector employs very few persons from the SC/ST category especially in positions of power. Therefore, the government should intervene to address the inequality," he said. He also charged the UPA government of ignoring the issue despite the fact that reservation was part of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of UPA 1.

Apart from reservation in private sector, the confederation also demanded enactment of the Reservation Act, abolition of contract labour system in government services, caste certificates issued by one state to be made valid in all states and reservation in higher judiciary and the Armed Forces.

A total number of 8,039 undergraduate and postgraduate students from 87 undergraduate and postgraduate institutes have got themselves registered.

The university dean of students’ welfare Gurpreet Tuteja said that the maximum number of students who got themselves registered were from B.Com (hons). A total of 1,723 students from B.Com (hons) got registered.

Other courses with large number of students getting registered are B.Com (prog) 909, B.A. (hons), economics 740, computer science 537 and bachelor of business economics 366.

The registration was subject to confirmation after the submission of downloaded forms and payment of fees.

Students can get the information about companies at http://placement.du.ac.in. Companies can also register at the website.

Tuteja said several companies had already registered online with DU and many had shown interest.

“Each student who has got registered has got a central placement cell unique identity number, using which (s)he can access information about the companies interested in recruiting. The companies will be forwarded students’ bio-data as per their requirements,” said Tuteja.

In the run up to the Commonwealth Games -- that Delhi would be hosting in October next year -- the Games Organising Committee (OC) is on a hiring spree.

It is looking for interested professionals -- both in the government and corporate sector -- who are willing to join and help in the successful organisation of the games.

At present the OC has 450 staff on it rolls but this, officials said, is woefully short to meet the requirement.

"We will need a total of 1,500 to 1,600 paid staff at the Organising Committee," said Randhir Singh, vice chairman of the OC.

The committee has set aside a budget of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) to meet the existing and proposed manpower cost.

Source: Hindustan Times Looking for a job? Join the Games brigade

If the occasional hunt for an efficient plumber or electrician sounds like a headache hard to get past, the Delhi government may soon have an answer for its residents.

As part of its project Jeevan, launched last year by the Delhi government as a single-window interface for governmentcitizen dealings, the government is now creating a database of semi-skilled labourers, such as masons, electricians and plumbers.

This database will be uploaded on the portal with contact numbers and other details.
Citizens can access the information via kiosks installed by the government on a publicprivate partnership basis.

According to government officials, the database is being prepared through a registration process created for seekers of these jobs. "So far, we have received about 20,791 registrations through our employment exchange. There were 282 registrations on Tuesday alone," said an official.

Nearly 9,000 workers renewed their registration after a drive was launched last month.

To avail their services, people will simply have to go to the kiosk in their areas and access the database. The government is reportedly also trying to rope in Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) to set up kiosks in residential colonies.

Source: The Indian Express Soon, odd-job services a click away

When a global asset management company decided to hire a new country head for India in May, the timing seemed ideal: not many financial service companies were recruiting and the market was flush with talent. But after four months of constant negotiations, the company is yet to complete the process as the selected candidate is demanding more money than it could offer.

Similarly, when a technology company that employs 10,000-odd people in India decided to hire a new CEO a couple of months ago, it took a few thousand dollars more and an extra month than the company had in mind to get the candidate on board.

Suddenly, candidates for top jobs are bargaining hard and long in a job market that’s tilting back in favour of the employee, with a clutch of companies across sectors returning to fill up the vacancies after almost a year.

“We are witnessing a situation where the outstanding leadership talent is being pursued by multiple opportunities, thereby vesting significant negotiation power with these executives,” said Atul Vohra, managing partner of executive search firm Transearch International.

Source: Economic TimesWanted: Reasonable candidates for top jobs

Shaking off its slowdown-induced chill, corporate India is recovering its appetite for growth. And the talent needed to drive it.

Jobs are back.
From consumer goods to retail, infrastructure to automobiles, employers are once again scouting for staff.

Consider this: According to apex industry body Assocham, in the National Capital Region alone, employers were adding more than 400 new jobs every day. That is 49,750 jobs at different levels between April and July this year alone. The outlook for fresh hires is even more positive.

India's largest job portal, Naukri.com, said India Inc's hiring activity picked up 8 per cent in June and a further 1.3 per cent in July.

In its survey on hiring trends, based on polls of over 5,000 employers spread across the country, the outlook for jobs has improved across the board, with IT, real estate, financial services, fast food and retail sectors leading the pack.
According to a quarterly survey by global recruitment firm Antal International, the percentage of companies in India hiring professionals and managers is up 51 per cent, after a dramatic fall to 29 per cent at the beginning of 2009.

As a result, job prospects for professionals and managers in India are now better than the global average, the survey said.

Hiring outlook for the next three months also looks promising, with as many as 66 per cent Indian companies expecting to recruit.

Source: India Today Firms On The Manhunt As Slump Eases

"The state may shortlist candidates on qualification, experience, marks or interview that enables the most competent person to be selected. "Age has nothing to do either with merit or competence," the court said.

Global outsourcing vendors, such as Accenture and Capgemini, are increasingly poaching staff from Indian rivals as they tap into BPO professionals to compete more effectively against companies like TCS, Wipro and Infosys. As offshore outsourcing goes mainstream, overseas multinationals are hiring Indians to head their sales teams in key markets in Europe and the US, a shift from the practice of employing locals to win contracts.

"This is happening for several roles spanning sales, sales support and delivery. There is in a sense, even positive discrimination towards Indians now," an Indian executive who joined an MNC in Germany recently told ET on condition on anonymity.

Offshore outsourcing, or remote delivery of software application development, maintenance and support from countries such as India, helps customers such as GE and Citibank save up to 40% in costs. Indian companies started using offshore outsourcing to their advantage around a decade ago by wooing customers with major cost benefits.

About a dozen or so top professionals have left an Indian company in recent months to join multinational competitors. Padmanabhan Ananthanarayanan, who headed India's largest software exporter TCS' sales organisation in Europe until February this year, joined Accenture in March as director for its outsourcing business based in Germany.

Source: Economic Times Global BPO vendors source staff from India

About 49,000 openings were offered by companies at different levels in April-July 2009-10 in the National Capital Region (comprising Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad) as compared to 42,501 openings between December-March 2008-09, the industry body said.

"Of total 49,750 number of job openings in the region, 46.4 per cent accounted for Delhi, while remaining 53.6 per cent went to rest of the region," Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.

He added the employment sector is likely to pick up as the signs of economic downturn are diminishing significantly.

Out of the total share of employment opportunities offered, companies in Gurgaon has offered the maximum number of jobs (23 per cent) followed by Delhi, Noida/Greater Noida (20 per cent), Ghaziabad (5.6 per cent) and Faridabad (4.9 per cent) and in sectors like IT/ITeS industry, academics, banking financial service and insurance sector, Assocham said.

With the Commonwealth Games 2010 fast approaching, the growth in the number of new vacancies in construction, hospitality and infrastructure sector would also increase, it said.

TeamLease Services Managing Director Ashok Reddy said that the demand for temporary employees had gone up nearly 100 per cent from the earlier levels.

"On an average, we have over 3,000 vacancies now, against the peak of 8,000 to 10,000 in 2005 and a low of 1,400 some months ago. Sectors like telecommunication, financial services, fast-moving consumer goods and IT to some extent have enough openings that need to be filled."

"There's a marginal improvement in the job market. But since larger job markets like the US and Europe are still under pressure (several large employers are headquartered there), it's too early to say anything," Ma Foi Management Consultants CEO and Director E Balaji added.

He attributed the marginal improvement in demand to opportunities in sectors like pharmaceutical, life sciences, healthcare and power which have not borne the brunt of the slowdown.

Source: Business-standard Job drought could end soon; recruitment agencies see pick-up in hiring

As part of its efforts to increase representation of women in central government jobs, the government has decided "to exempt women candidates from payment of fees" and asked recruiting agencies UPSC and SSC to make this clear in all advertisements to be released for this purpose.

The decision, notified by the ministry of personnel on July 15, came a week after the government made it mandatory for recruitment panels to keep at least one woman member in the Board so that these agencies could "strive to have a workforce which reflects gender balance" in the central government jobs.

The ministry of personnel on July 8 had issued guidelines, asking all central government departments and recruitment bodies to ensure better representation of women members on various CommitteesBoards concerned with appointments to various posts.

"The idea is to increase the number of women in central government jobs from existing 7.52% to at least 15%-20% of total strength of workforce in the next couple of years. It is believed that the presence of women members in various selection committees will ensure sensitivity towards finding more and more women for government jobs commensurate with their educational qualification," said a senior ministry official.

The minister informed the Lok Sabha that as per the estimation of the ministry based on a specific study in 2003-04, the yearly additional requirement of trained manpower of the hospitality industry is of about 200,000 people.

Selja said considering the shortage of skilled manpower in the sector, the government has initiated a programme for skill development for youth in the age group of 18 to 25 years and for those who are at least Class 8 pass.

"The programme will impart training in food and beverage service and food production so that the trainees become employable," she said.

She said under the ministry's scheme of capacity building for service providers, they enable training of cooks, waiters, drivers and other service providers.

"The computerisation process of major employment exchanges of the country is on and will be completed in the next three months.

"Once this is done, all information about job opportunities and those listed in the exchange will be available on a website," Union Minister of Labour and Employment, Mallikarjun Kharge told PTI.

This could be a boon for job seekers as the proposed 'national portal' will make all employment-related services available on a single window.

"The web portal would be a storehouse of information on availability and requirement of skilled persons and would also network with industrial training institutes and other centres," a senior official of the Ministry said.

Modernisation of employment exchanges across the country will help students register online and reach out to any exchange in the country.

The National e-Governance Plan had identified employment exchanges as one of the Mission Mode Projects.

The modernisation move will also enable real-time usage of online data submitted by employers for providing opportunities to job seekers, the official said.

Availability of data would also help both the Centre and the state governments to plan policy interventions, the official said.

Modernisation of the exchanges will be launched in two phases, covering Haryana, Rajasthan, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Assam in the first phase and the rest of the states in the second phase.

The entire project is expected to be completed in 36 months from commencement of the work.

The Labour and Employment ministry has held a series of meetings with state governments and the detailed project report is in the final stages of preparation, sources said.

National Institute for Smart Government (NISG), a non- profit making organisation, has been selected as a principal consultant for the modernisation of the employment exchanges.

Services of established job portals would also be sought to make the project possible, the official said.

Once the exchanges become fully active, they are expected to provide quality guidance on capabilities assessment, employment counseling and vocational guidance, and training- related information to the job seekers.