Mercer expects hiring in India to increase rapidly over the next year
According to the senior leadership at global HR consultancy Mercer, the Indian job market is due for a substantial boom over the next year, given that over half of the companies surveyed by the firm are planning to increase their hiring levels in 2019, while less than 5% plan to cut staff.
India’s economy is growing at a rapid rate, to the extent that analysts predict that India will rise to the 2nd largest economy in the globe by 2050. Such a scenario is not only promising for prosperity in terms of rising standards of living, but is also highly conducive to growth in the job market and an overall reduction in unemployment.
A number of indicators currently manifesting themselves in the Indian market suggest that India’s workforce is expected to expand substantially over the next few years, not only in terms of size but also in terms of its scope of capabilities. Expectations from employees in India are anticipated to evolve in tandem with global trends.
One such indicator is the rapid expansion of the artificial intelligence domain, which will cut jobs on the one hand, but will simultaneously give rise to a whole host of new jobs that require working in collaboration with the latest in automated and machine learning techniques.
Another closely related indicator is the intentions of IT firms across the country to ramp up their hiring, given the vast demand for IT services that is emerging as a result of digital disruption across the globe. According to senior officials at Mercer, most firms in India have similar intentions.
“The hiring outlook seems to be positive (in 2019). More than 50 percent of companies expect to increase the headcount whereas only 3 percent are likely to reduce the headcount, as per our employers' survey,” explains the India Business Leader at Mercer Shanthi Naresh.
Mustafa Faizani, Lead at Mercer for the India, Middle East and Africa zone, elaborates on the role of AI in the transformation of the job market, reiterating the point that the advent of AI and machine learning will lead to the emergence of a new breed of jobs in a variety of sectors, despite causing jobs cuts and the need to reskill employees.
This is primarily due to the widespread applications of AI across all sectors of the economy, including crucial functions such as calculating predictive default rates on borrowing. CEO at Mercer India Anish Sarkar highlights that the demand for jobs is also growing due to the simultaneous increase in the demand for skills in other domains. “Besides the demand for key skills like sales, research and development become predominant,” he said.
