Editorial: Changed job outlook

The silver lining is that the employment growth prospects in a host of sectors, such as information technology, IT services, infrastructure, and the manufacturing & engineering sectors are still buoyant and have pushed up the net employment outlook marginally quarter-on-quarter, compared to the all-time low of the last quarter. But that is small consolation as the experience on the ground only endorses what the TeamLease survey has predicted. For example, a host of companies are pushing back their on-campus recruitment from colleges in the Tier II and III towns, which were big catchment areas in the last four years. Several colleges which had got used to being flooded with enquiries from employers wanting to hire students have reported that they are having a tough time persuading companies to come calling. Consequently, salaries have come under pressure as companies go cherry picking and are unwilling to shell out the kind of money they might have been willing to pay earlier, in order to avoid a cost blowout in relation to productivity.

While the gloom is pervasive, many people also say that in a way this is a good stabilising phase as companies functioning in over-heated markets had begun recruiting anybody with a pair of hands. Indeed, the supply of qualified people remains a challenge for a system that hopes to continue growing at 9 per cent in the medium-term. A McKinsey Quarterly survey showed that as many as 81 per cent of top Indian executives feel that the availability of talent will be a significant constraint on business over the next five years. So companies would do well to pitch in with improved training facilities. That's how they can win the war for talent in a relatively inexpensive way.