Revival! India to create millions of jobs

Nearly 2 lakh (200,000) engineers and 1.32 lakh (132,000) diploma holders were unemployed in 2007, the ministry of labour and employment told the Lok Sabha on Monday, and said that 15 million jobs would be created in public and private sectors by the end of Eleventh Plan.

However, these number are likely to have gone up with several engineers and diploma holders loosing their jobs during the on-going recession.

Minister of State for Labour and Employment Harish Rawat informed the Lok Sabha that 1.93 lakh (193,000) engineers were unemployed in 2007. The number of diploma holders looking for a job in the same year was 1.32 lakh.

The number of unemployed engineers has been growing steadily since 2003 -- with 2006 being an exception.

While in 2003, there were 82,000 unemployed engineers, the figure rose to 1.12 lakh (112,000) in 2005. However, in 2006 it fell to 48,000.

The number of jobless diploma holders in 2003 was 1.31 lakh (131,000) and 1.07 lakh (107,000) in 2005. In 2006, it was 45,000.

Rawat said the 11th Plan aims at increasing private organised sector employment by at least 10 million to provide jobs to educated unemployed.

"Along with the public sector, organised sector jobs would then expand by over 15 million, a growth rate of about 9 per cent per annum," Rawat said.

Revival! Employment outlook looks up

Employment and business outlook in India indicates signs of revival with the net employment outlook index standing at 46 per cent for the upcoming quarter from July to September 2009, an increase of 22 per cent compared to the previous quarter, according a report.

Similarly the net business outlook index stood at 24 per cent, an increase of 26 per cent compared to the previous quarter, (it was a negative last quarter), according to The Employment Outlook Report for July-September 2009 by TeamLease Services, a leading staffing company.

Among sectors covered, in terms of employment, there is an increase in all the sectors with telecom being the highest at 55 points followed by information technology and infrastructure (with 53 points), the report said.

Among cities, there is an increase in Employment Outlook index points of all cities. The index points of Chennai increased the most by 37 points followed by Delhi and Pune by 33 points and Hyderabad by 28 points, the report said.

The index points of most sectors are on the rise except for ITES. The financial service sector increased the most by 47 points.

In terms of the Business Outlook, there was increase in the index points of all cities with Pune being the highest by 47 points.

'Hiring intention' continued to show a steady increase across most functions, except marketing.

There is a decrease in intention to hire at all managerial levels, except senior levels.

During the past three months as well as the last one year, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore had the highest attrition rates compared to other cities, while Kolkata had the lowest.

The financial services had the lowest attrition rate in the past months at 5 per cent, while pharma had the lowest attrition rate in the past one year at 7 per cent.

The report is a quarterly report prepared through a survey administered to HR heads, CEOs and senior management of leading companies. The report covers 495 companies.

According to the TeamLease Services Private Ltd GM Surabhi Mathur-Gandhi, "With the stabilisation of economies and optimism in global expansion, there is a direct positive implication for the Indian employment situation. We are observing a slow and steady upsurge in the hiring intent across sectors. The advent of new players and aggressive expansion of large telecom giants has seen a bullish outlook for the industry with a promise of exponential growth."

City specific highlights of Bangalore show that the city showed an increase of 9 points in the net employment outlook compared to the last quarter and an 18 point increase in the net business outlook.

Attrition rate is the highest in Bangalore as compared to other cities over last year at 23 per cent.

58 million jobs for labourers

The government on Monday said labour force in the country has seen an increase of nearly 3 per cent from 1995 to 2000 and the Eleventh Five Year Plan aimed at creating 58 million job opportunities for them.

Quoting National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) figures, Minister of State of Labour and Employment Harish Rawat informed the Lok Sabha on Monday that the Eleventh Five Year Plan aims at creating 58 million job opportunities aimed at alleviating poverty.

"The focus is also on productive employment at a faster pace than before, and target agriculture growth at 4 per cent per annum in order to raise the incomes of masses of the rural population," he said.

The minister informed the House that labour force on "usual status basis" has increased from 406.06 million in 1999-2000 to 469.94 million in 2004-05, registering an average growth rate of 2.97 per cent per annum.

Rawat said the government is implementing various employment generation and poverty alleviation programmes like Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana, Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme, Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana and NREGS.