Page 47 - Labor

'India's employability rises to 47%;engineers most employable'

Percentage of employable population in the country grew to a new high of 47 per cent this year, an increase of almost 2-3 percentage points since last year, with engineers being the most employable class, a report said Thursday. The employability rose by 14 percentage points in the last five years, from 33 per cent in 2014, according to India Skills Report, a joint initiative of Wheebox, PeopleStrong and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Around 57 per cent of the final-year engineering graduates were found to be employable, an increase of about five percentage points since last year, the report said. The employability amongst masters of business administration (MBA) graduates, however, has dropped by three percentage points over last year, the report said, without specifying the exact number. "It seems that with exponential increase in the number of MBA colleges, the quality of talent is seen to be declining," it added. The report also found that there has been

Unemployment rate down by 40pc in Bengal: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the rate of unemployment had come down by 40 per cent in the state, due to various developmental schemes. Speaking in the Assembly House, Banerjee said there are 300 ITIs and polytechnics, and the state government has undertaken the 'Utkarsh Bangla' project, which aims to skill six lakh people every year. She said with better implementation of the MNREGA and other similar schemes, "unemployment rate has reduced by 40 per cent". Banerjee also told her party members to maintain good coordination among departments, and not assure anything to people that is beyond their domain. Meanwhile, Technical Education Minister Purnendu Bose said 1.5 lakh students have already enrolled under the project, and 400 training institutes will impart training to them. Finance Minister Amit Mitra said the aim is to encourage trainees to become entrepreneurs instead of job seekers. Bose added the state government will provide tiffin ..

One dead as S.Africa gold mine strike turns violent

South Africa's largest gold producer, Sibanye-Stillwater, on Thursday said one of its employees was shot dead in a violent strike that shuttered all three of its mines. Called by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), the strike began late on Wednesday, shutting down all of Sibanye's mines which employ some 32,000 people, in the latest test for the country's struggling mining sector. "There has been quite a lot of violence and intimidation. It is a charged environment and emotions are (running) high," Sibanye spokesman James Wellsted told AFP. "One of our employees was killed during the night. There have been a number of other injuries, including workers in hospital with gunshot wounds and stab wounds." The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said the dead man, who was a union member, was attacked on a bus taking workers to the Beatrix mine in Welkom, Free State province. "Attackers started by closing the security gates, throwing stones at the bus," an NUM ...

'India Skills Report 2019': employability increases from 37% to 47.38% in 5 years

This year, India Skills Report which is a joint initiative of Wheebox, a Global Talent Assessment Company, PeopleStrong, a leading HR Tech Company and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and supported and backed by renowned partners like United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Association of Indian Universities (AIU), stated that Employability continues to rise thus reaching a new high of 47% this year - An incrementalchange of almost 2-3 percentage points since last year and a huge change of over 15% points in the past 5 years.While in 2014, the percentage of employable population was a paltry 33% and thus this year reaching to 47%. Engineers continue to be the most employable whereas MBA courses lose its shine. As per this year's data 57% of the final year engineering graduates are employable, which is an increase of about 5% points since last year which was 52%.India Skills Report was launched in Lucknow by the Chief ...

India Inc's Hiring Intent for 2019 Most Positive in Last 4 Years: PeopleStrong Survey

/ -- Hiring intent in 2019 is expected to be strongest after a gap of four years on the back of bullish employment opportunities in Software & Hardware, Automotive and Travel and Hospitality sectors, according to India Skills Report 2019. The appetite for fresh hiring can be gauged from the fact that the intent for 2019 has more than doubled to 15% from a mere 7% in 2017. India Skills Report 2019 is a joint initiative by PeopleStrong, India's fastest growing HR solutions, and HR Technology Company, and Wheebox, a Global Talent Assessment Company, in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) along with partners like UNDP, AICTE, and AIU. Driving the growth in hiring intent in 2019 is the Software Industry, which is emerging from the shadow of de-growth, turbulence and freeze in hiring after a gap of two years. While design and analytics jobs would be the most sought-after ones in the overall set, the demand would increase for almost all profiles especially ...

Tech hiring set to make comeback in 2019: Report

Hiring intent in 2019 is expected to be strongest after a gap of four years on the back of bullish employment opportunities in IT, automotive, travel and hospitality sectors, a report said Thursday. According to India Skills Report, almost 64 per cent employers have a positive outlook on hiring, 20 per cent said they will hire the same number of people as 2018 and only handful have a negative outlook for 2019. Besides, the appetite for fresh hiring in the coming year has more than doubled to 15 per cent from a mere 7 per cent in 2017. The report noted that even though hiring volumes might not reach the scale of 2010-11, the situation would still be better than what it was in the last 2-3 years. "It is encouraging to see a positive hiring intent this year and even more to see tech hiring getting back in action," PeopleStrong Co-founder, and CEO Pankaj Bansal said, adding that the increase in hiring intent was not limited to organisations of a certain size, but was spread across ...

'Every child working is working at the cost of adult job'

A child working means one job less for adults, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi said here Wednesday, underlining the connection between illiteracy, exploitation of children and unemployment. Delivering a lecture here, Satyarthi also said one cannot think of social and economic justice, alleviation of poverty and gender equality without education. "Child labour, poverty and illiteracy is triangular paradigm of exploitation of children. 210 million adults are jobless in the world....(then) why are 152 million children being engaged in work? Every child working is working at the cost of an adult job," he said. The children who work full time often have parents who can not get a job for more than 100 days a year, he said. Children are hired because they are cheap labour, they cannot go to the courts and they can be sexually abused, he said. "If we spend one dollar on eradication of child labour in the country, according to the United Nations and World Bank, the return would .

Spanish court rejects sex worker's union

Spain's National Court has ruled against the creation of a sex worker's union that left the feminist Socialist government red-faced upon discovering its own administration had approved it. The court, which decides major cases, said Wednesday it had cancelled the statutes of the "Organisation of Sex Workers", which had been registered by the labour ministry and published in the official gazette on August 4. It ruled that a union cannot defend members engaged in "activities that by nature don't come with a valid work contract". It added that recognizing such a union would equate to "admitting that pimping... is a legal activity". The OTRAS union, which vows to defend the rights of people in the industry, had argued that it represented pornographic film actors and phone sex operators in addition to prostitutes. But the court decided that not excluding prostitutes meant the union was illegal. OTRAS said it would appeal against the court's ruling and hold its first congress on Saturday in .

Bombardier cuts 500 jobs in N Ireland

Canadian aircraft and transport company Bombardier will axe almost 500 people in Northern Ireland in a global cost-cutting drive, it confirmed on Wednesday. The cutbacks are part of a worldwide efficiency plan, unveiled earlier this month, to streamline operations and slash 5,000 jobs -- more than seven percent of its global workforce -- and focus on core activities in aviation and railways. The struggling group is one of the biggest employers in Northern Ireland, with a large base in Belfast where it produces the wings for its C-Series aircraft. "Following the global workforce adjustments announced by Bombardier Inc. on November 8, 2018, we have reviewed our manpower requirements in Belfast and regret to confirm that we must reduce our workforce across the company by 490 employees," it said in a statement. "We acknowledge the impact this will have on our workforce and their families and we continue to explore opportunities to help mitigate the number of compulsory ...

IKEA cuts 7,500 jobs

Swedish furniture giant IKEA Group plans to cut 7,500 jobs over the next two years as it reshuffles its organization amid a rapidly changing retail landscape, it said on Wednesday.

Bombardier cuts 490 jobs at Belfast plant

Belfast (Reuters) - Bombardier Inc is to cut 490 jobs at its Belfast operations, the Canadian company announced on Wednesday.

Shell's UK gender pay gap narrows to 19 percent

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell's female employees in Britain earned on average 18.6 percent less than their male colleagues in 2018, the company said in a report on Wednesday, narrowing the gender pay gap from 2017's 22.2 percent.

Cos increasing focus on employees' emotional,fin health: Study

To increase productivity, more and more companies in India are beginning to take a holistic view of their employees' health and wellness, which also includes emotional and financial well-being, a study said. The 'India Health and Well-Being Study 2018' by Willis Towers Watson found that this year over 80 per cent of the organisations have taken at least one action in health risks or condition management, weight management, physical activity and nutrition and managing employee stress and mental health. While 61 per cent have taken at least one action to improve the financial well-being of employees in 2018, it is a concern that almost half of the surveyed organisations still do not have a formally articulated health and well-being strategy, it said. The study was conducted by the global advisory, broking and solutions company during June to August 2018 and polled over 100 organisations and senior human resource leaders from multiple sectors. A majority 66 per cent of ...

Mid day meal workers' salaries matter of national shame: D Raja

Raising concerns over the "meagre salaries" paid to cook-cum-helpers working under the centrally sponsored 'Mid Day Meal' scheme, CPI national secretary D Raja called it a matter of national shame and demanded their pay be hiked. Addressing a rally of Mid Day Meal (MDM) scheme workers organised by eight different trade union bodies at Jantar Mantar here, Raja said there are about 26 lakhs MDM workers at the grass root level and 98 per cent of this work force are women. The scheme was launched on August 15, 1995, and covered under the National Security Act, 2013. "It is a matter of national shame that the Mid Day Meal workers are paid only Rs 1,000 per month and that too for only ten months a year," Raja said. The objective of the scheme was to boost universalisation of education by increasing enrolment, retention and attendance and improving the nutrition levels of students. In 2001, the Supreme Court had made it mandatory for the government to provide cooked meal to all children in ..

Med board examines govt staff seeking exemption from poll duty

A medical board, especially set up by the Hailakandi district administration, has declared 9 of the 10 applicants fit who sought exemption from election duty on health grounds for the rural polls scheduled next month here, a top official said Monday. The board has set up by Hailakandi Deputy Commissioner Adil Khan, who is also the District Election Officer (DEO). Khan said the special medical board is headed by Joint Director, Health Services, Dr Abed Rasul Mazumder and comprises doctors and specialists for health examination of all government employees who sought exemption from duty due to illness. Panchayat polls in Hailakandi is scheduled on December 9 in the second phase along with nine other districts of Assam. "Employees claiming sickness are being examined by a board which is a continuous process. As far as election duty is concerned, the medical board constituted for the purpose will decide whether an employee is fit for election duty or not," Khan said. All ...

Many UK workers lack access to decent toilets

Tens of thousands of UK workers do not have access to decent toilets, Britain's biggest trade union Unite has found.

Cos doing little to prepare organisations for future: Report

Even as a majority of companies recognise capabilities which are important for their future success, many are failing to take the action needed to build them into their organisations, according to a report. This gap will put them at risk in the future when it comes to attracting, developing and retaining the talent they need to succeed, according to PwC's 'Future of Work' report. The report is based on a survey of 1,246 business and HR leaders from 79 countries, including in India. "Technology and trends such as rising life expectancy, social and environmental pressures and the gig economy are transforming the world of work. Companies that understand and act on these workforce changes now will be the ones that thrive in the future," PwC UK joint global leader, people and organisation, Carol Stubbings said. These actions include using data analytics to make workforce decisions and creating a compelling work experience for employees, it added. The survey found that ...

Organisations not doing enough to prepare for future of work, says PwC report

Businesses are not taking prompt action on the human resources front in terms of retaining talent and dealing with future challenges, said a PwC report. It notes that while the majority of businesses recognise which capabilities are important for their future success, many are failing to take the actions needed today to build or even introduce them into their organisations. "These actions include using data analytics to make workforce decisions and creating a compelling work experience for employees. This gap will put them at risk in the future when it comes to attracting, developing and retaining the talent they need to succeed," the report said. PwC's 'Future of Work' report has been produced in collaboration with Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice at London Business School. It is based on a survey of 1,246 businesses and HR leaders from 79 countries. The report focuses on 45 capabilities and identifies where organisations are most 'at risk' by looking at the number of .

Iranian jobs go as U.S. sanctions start to bite

LONDON (Reuters) - Tamnoush, an Iranian company that makes fizzy drinks, has shut down its production line after 16 years and laid off dozens of workers. It was facing massive losses as U.S. sanctions pushed up the price of imported raw materials.

PayPal to host third edition of Recharge in December

Digital payments provider PayPal Sunday announced the third edition of 'Recharge' aimed at serving women who plan to take up job opportunities after a career break. The third edition of 'Recharge' is a six week programme focused on empowering women technologists to get back to workforce after a hiatus. Recharge has equipped women technologists with the skills and confidence required to help jump-start their careers after a break, a company statement said. "In the last two years, our Recharge programme has received over 1,500 applications that we have hired from, reflecting the potential of this work group," PayPal Human Resources Senior Director, Jayanthi Vaidyanathan said. 'Recharge' will be launched in Bengaluru and Chennai on December 17 and 19, respectively. PayPal Recharge programme would give an opportunity to network with leaders from PayPal and the industry among others, the release added.