India second globally in job optimism among senior executives: Survey

Following Brazil, around 57% of Indian senior management executives expect job growth

India is only second to Brazil on job optimism among senior-management level professionals.

As per the latest 2019 'Executive Career Outlook' by BlueSteps, a career management service for executives of the US-based Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants (AESC), leaders in India are optimistic about the job market, with 57 per cent of senior management-level executives expecting more roles.

The survey is based on responses from more than 1,400 executives worldwide, including over 130 in India.

Among the top-21 countries and regions covered in the survey that provides data from global executives and AESC recruiters on executive job market predictions, India is globally second to only Brazil with 72 per cent, with Japan & Korea anticipating the least with just 14 per cent. 

However, India tops the list at 57 per cent with most of its leaders being optimistic about the economy for 2019, followed by Brazilian leaders at 56 per cent, while again Japan and Korea being the only region with no respondents feeling more optimistic about their economy in 2019 over 2018.

What's more, when global leaders overall were asked to select which markets they expect to see the most growth in 2019, the top answer was a tie between India and Greater China at 43 per cent. The next highest was the United States at 31 percent. Southeast Asia and Africa rounded out the top five responses at 26 and 24 percent of responses, respectively. 

As per BlueSteps, these align with UN estimates wherein, according to the UN's World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2019 report, India is expected to the have the highest growth in GDP with an anticipated increase of 7.6 percent for 2019-2020.

Out of the top eight markets that received the most responses for expected economic growth by senior management-level survey respondents, the United States had the sharpest decrease in expected growth at 37 per cent. 

Alternatively, Africa and India had a large increase in the number of leaders globally who expect growth in the region. The percentage of senior management-level respondents who expect growth increased 66 percent for Africa and 35 percent for India.

Meanwhile, globally senior executives expect technology, industrial and professional services to register highest job growth with 17 per cent, 14.8 per cent and 12.9 per cent of respondents choosing these sectors, respectively. On the other hand, in terms of roles and functions, general management at 13.1 per cent, chief executive officer (CEO) at 12.6 per cent and business development or sales at 10.9 per cent saw the highest optimism among executives for growth.