More than 50% of companies look to step up hiring in 2019: Mercer

Besides the demand for key skills like sales, research and development become predominant, says India business leader, Mercer

More than 50 per cent of companies intend to increase hiring next year while only 3 per cent firms may reduce the headcount, a senior official of global consulting HR firm Mercer said.

"The hiring outlook seems to be positive (in 2019). More than 50 per cent of companies expect to increase the headcount whereas only 3 per cent are likely to reduce the headcount, as per our employers' survey," said Shanthi Naresh, India business leader, Mercer, when asked about the hiring trend for the coming year.

Mercer (India) CEO Anish Sarkar also noted that the trend for the last couple of years has been good in terms of hiring and next year the outlook seems positive.

"Besides the demand for key skills like sales, research and development become predominant," he said.

Speaking about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on job losses, Mustafa Faizani, Mercer Zone leader for India, Middle East and Africa said, AI will lead to displacement of jobs but will have addition as well.

So, on a net basis it will add jobs in different sectors but it will be a challenge on how to reskill displaced persons and make them employable for the new economy.

About the use of AI, he mentioned that AI is being deployed for credit approvals and predicting the default rate of an applicant instead of individuals taking a call. Approvals are happening fast on AI rather than relying on an individual's judgement, he added.

AI is also useful in preventing money laundering by detecting transactions and movement of money across global financial sectors.