The pace of job creation has indeed improved in the past two years but it has largely remained confined to new economy sectors like technology and its associated digital world. The manufacturing sector, where masses could be employed in hordes is yet waiting for triggers like the GST to show its true potential in employment generation. So, “it is quite true that the job market is definitely looking up but to say that we are in the middle of a very buoyant job market would be an exaggeration,” says Shiv Agarwal, founder of the placement firm, HeadHonchos, & MD ABC Consultants. He appreciates the reformative triggers set in by the Narendra Modi government that he feels has helped his company’s revenue going up by over 30% last year largely due to the increased hiring in technology, internet, pharma, healthcare and in the retail sectors. “We had not seen a jump like that for many years,” he adds. Hiring has also picked up in the renewable (solar) side of the power sector as well.
The space where things are beginning to look up are the consumer durables and the automobile sectors. Hiring has also increased in the road construction business. The sectors where job creation has been quite sluggish are infrastructure and oil & gas. Tightening of the cash economy has slowed jobs creation in the real estate segment as well. Analysts say that infrastructure is a big space where everybody has high hopes. It can create a multiplier effect on the job’s market largely on account of the government’s ambitious budget to create basic and modern infrastructure in the country.
Despite the growth that the jobs market in India is experiencing, the common man is yet to get convinced about it. For them, the options seem few and far between. The whole agitation over reservation in government jobs is the outcome of such insecurities. Analysts explain that the nature of jobs creation is undergoing a transition. New economy sectors like technology have low labour intensity and its ability to create the required number of jobs is therefore, limited — a reason why government has unleashed its Make in India programme that would compensate such losses by energising the industrial manufacturing in the country. “We would see a significant upturn in the jobs markets once infrastructure and manufacturing picks up at the ground level,” says Agrawal. Stakeholders feel that the government has been quite responsible on the economic front and has done many sensible things to improve the business climate in India.