Improvement expected in job market

Further improvement in the job market is expected with the release of the quarterly employment survey for January-March period, officials said today.

The last survey carried out for the October-December quarter had revealed that 6.38 lakh jobs were created during that quarter, reflecting a positive revival of the job market battered by the recession.

The initial data tabulated so far shows that there has been a further improvement in the employment scenario with several sectors scaling up their hiring rate, said an official in the Labour and Employment Ministry.

The quarterly survey is prepared by the Labour Bureau. The first of such surveys was carried out during the October-December quarter in 2008 immediately after the onset of recession to study the impact of recession on the job market.

The source said quite a number of opportunities have been created in the services sectors as well as in the export units during the first quarter this year, and this is expected to be reflected in the survey report.

During the last quarter, 91 per cent of the jobs created were in export units, which bore the brunt of the economic crisis.

Out of the total increase of 6.38 lakh jobs during the period, 5.80 lakh jobs were added in the export units. The IT/BPO units alone added 4.87 lakh jobs within the export units.

The Ministry has launched various programme under its skill development initiative to create a pool of skilled hands in the country keeping in mind the increasing demand for qualified people by the industry.