8L jobs open, one corner of the market is booming

Demand for frontline jobs is on the rise on the back of an economic recovery, sustained corporate earnings growth and a buoyant stock market.Companies are adding to their payrolls despite a moderation in pent-up demand as they foresee consistent growth and a full recovery from the Covid-19 impact over the next few quarters.Over 8,00,000 blue and grey collar positions across nearly 1,100 companies need to be filled, according to data from the ASEEM (Aatamanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping) platform, shared by Betterplace, which manages the platform in collaboration with the National Skill Development Corporation.The top recruiters are in the logistics, retail, apparel, healthcare and IT/ITes sectors and even hard-hit sectors such as tourism and hospitality accounted for about 8,000 placements in the past two weeks.“We have observed a consistent demand recovery for frontline jobs – skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled. Even after the pent-up demand seen in the months of September and October moderated, we are seeing demand from across sectors as reflected in the rise in the number of job positions,” said Saurabh Tandon, COO of Betterplace.Salaries for blue-collar jobs range from Rs 12,000 to Rs 16,000, while for grey-collar roles they are Rs 18,000-25,000, according to Betterplace.Top roles in blue and grey collars include courier delivery executives, retail sales associates, emergency medical technicians, tailoring and sewing machine operators, mobile hardware technicians and machine operators. Grey-collars workers are those with specialised technical skills to work in manufacturing plants and operate equipment.Executive search firm ManpowerGroup India said there has been an almost 30% increase in demand from the retail and e-commerce sectors in the past two months since the last quarter. In manufacturing, demand for entry-level jobs has been stable over the past three months with 10% month-on-month growth, according to ManpowerGroup data.“We are witnessing a month-on-month increased demand for entry-level sales, service and delivery jobs across sectors,” said Alok Kumar, senior director for sales, account management & global accounts at ManpowerGroup India. “The vaccination drives are acting as a catalyst to keep up the momentum, so a quicker turnaround is just around the corner.”ET spoke to companies such as Lupin, Dabur, Ecom Express and RPG Group, which said they are ramping up their frontline workforce.“We are not only hiring for all vacant positions in the frontline but also budgeted for growth with new lines and new positions in the next financial year, for which hiring will begin in April,” said Yashwant Mahadik, president for global HR at Lupin. “As market is getting more and more buoyant we will be hiring increasingly across frontline roles in functions such as manufacturing, quality, R&D, frontline sales, etc,” said Mahadik.“The demand recovery has been faster than expected, especially in the passenger car, utility vehicle and even two-wheelers,” said Milind Apte, senior vice president-HR, at Ceat Tyres, a part of the RPG Group. “We are continuously assessing the situation and will add more people in our existing plants over the next 3-6 months.”Dabur, too, is strengthening its frontline workforce.“We are hiring feet on the street, which is an imperative to meet the objectives of distribution enhancement. Some of these hires would be for our new portfolio that needs to be ramped up quickly,” said Dabur India’s executive director-HR Biplab Baksi.Saurabh Deep Singla, chief HR officer at Ecom Express, said: “The surge in demand for delivery boys was initially attached to the seasonal phenomenon and a lot of players who were not operating came back to life and are now growing.”Apte said companies are far better prepared to deal with the pandemic than a year before and this, along with the confidence that the government will not do anything dramatic to shut down the economy, is emboldening hiring plans.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3q0KtQJ