It's raining jobs in India amid global crisis

Even as thousands are losing their jobs worldwide on deteriorating economic conditions, India has a reason to cheer. In just one week, companies have unveiled plans for hiring 40,000 people in the country, while nearly 30,000 jobs fell in the firing line elsewhere.

Private insurer MetLife India is looking to recruit about 2,000 managers and a whopping 30,000 advisors in the coming months. Further, global management consultancy firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is looking to hire 3,500 employees in the country, aiming to take the total headcount in the country to 12,000 in the next three years.

"We are planning to increase our headcount to 12,000 people by 2011 from 8,500 at present. The hiring would be focused mainly in our advisory business," Deloitte Asia Pacific CEO Chaly Mah said. In the past one year, the consultancy firm hired more than 2,000 people.

On the contrary, companies in the US and the UK, including banking behemoth Citigroup, British Telecom and Royal Bank of Scotland, have announced job cuts totalling nearly 30,000 in just less than a week.

According to MetLife India's Managing Director Rajesh Relan, the firm plans to hire about 2,000 sales managers and 30,000 financial advisors by March, which would nearly double both the workforces.

Currently, MetLife India has about 2,220 sales managers and more than 30,000 financial advisors working for it, which would grow to a strength of about 60,000 advisors and more than 4,200 managers by March 2009.

Last month, the unemployment rate in the world's largest economy, the US, touched a 14-year high of 6.5 per cent, an indication of the deepening economic turmoil.

British Telecom
British Telecom, which has a significant offshore presence in India, has announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs, or 6.3 per cent, of its global workforce, by March but the company said it would not affect its India operations, which employ over 20,000 people directly and indirectly.

"The Indian operations would not see any retrenchment. The majority of the job cuts are based in the UK. It is too early to know country-specific job cuts," a company spokesman said. The cuts will mainly affect agency and contract staff and offshore workers, the company said. BT has a global workforce of 1,60,000.

However, following the announcement on Thursday, a British media report said the telecom giant may axe more people in addition to the figure of 10,000.