10 lakh new jobs, hefty pay hikes likely in 2016

New Delhi: Good news awaits the job market in the New Year with the companies expected to add more than 10 lakh employees to their payrolls and dole out hefty salary hikes in the range of 10-30 per cent for right talent in 2016.

According to HR experts and headhunters, the year 2015 saw a bullish trend in terms of hiring activities and the same is likely to continue in 2016 on favourable economic growth forecast and the emergence of a startup ecosystem in various sectors including retail, finance and technology.

Besides, the job market can get a further boost from the entry of new global players including in the manufacturing space and into the sectors that have been opened further for foreign investments. "The organised sector in India is set to create about one million new jobs in the calendar year 2016," Rajesh Kumar, CEO pf MyHiringClub.com & JobPortal.co.in said.

Besides, the salary hikes and bonuses in India are expected to be in the double digit this appraisal season. According to a new survey by MyHiringClub.com, a recruitment platform, most employers are optimistic about their hiring plans in 2016. The survey covered 5,480 companies across 12 industry sectors in 21 major cities.

The latest TimesJobs.com Job Outlook 2016 survey of over 1,614 employers across India also shows positive hiring plans by nearly 60 per cent of the surveyed organisations. The survey covered over 1,614 employers across India.

"With the government's Digital India and Make in India push, manpower demand is bound to increase in core technology and manufacturing sectors in 2016," TimesJobs.com COO Vivek Madhukar said. The e-commerce and startups will add a significant number of jobs this year, he added.

On salary front, HR experts forecast handsome pay hikes and the hikes could be much higher for the top talent. The Seventh Pay Commission recommendations, which call for a hefty hike in salaries of the government employees, are also expected to have a ripple effect in the private sector.

"In year 2016, average raise of the salary will go around 12-14 per cent wherein the key performers salary hike can hit as good as 25-30 per cent," executive search firm GlobalHunt's Managing Director Sunil Goel said.

According to Naukri.com Chief Sales Officer V Suresh, "2016 will be an year to cheer for job-seekers across sectors. Our Naukri Hiring Outlook also predicts IT/ITES and BFSI to sustain the momentum gained in the coming year as well."

Echoing similar sentiment, staffing firm Teamlease Managing Director Ashok Reddy said "We are expecting a 10-12 per cent increase in hiring in 2016 as favourable growth forecast coupled with renewed faith in the ongoing reforms and fast clipped consumer spending is expected to boost the employment scenario".

The major quarterly hiring surveys also predict a bullish start for the year 2016. According to global executive recruitment firm Antal's Global Snapshot, nearly 88 per cent of companies in India have hiring plans for 2016. The quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey puts India as the most optimistic among 42 countries in terms of hiring plans for the first three months of 2016.

"In the white-collar space, 2015 saw a huge impetus from highly funded start-ups with the largest ones ramping from a few hundred to a few thousand people. If the funding continues in 2016, we will see more jobs being created there," said Harpreet Singh Grover, CEO & Founder of CoCubes Technologies, an assessment platform.

Experts believe that initiatives like 'Make in India' can entail significant job creation in the manufacturing, automation sectors in the coming year. The plan to create 100 smart cities is expected to fuel the job growth further.

"As major expansions are poised to materialise by next September, hiring will become more proactive, especially before the appraisals in March 2016," Satya D Sinha, CEO of executive search firm MANCER Consulting said. According to Spectrum Talent Management's Co-Founder Vidur Gupta, the significant rise in job numbers in 2016 would be largely owing to couple of new horizons opened through technology in engineering/ITeS/ Pharma/E-Commerce.

Other promising areas include bio-science which is going to create a slew of vacancies in the coming year, said Rajesh Tripathi VP and Head of HR at GHCL. Rituparna Chakraborty, President of Indian Staffing Federation, said the IT sector is likely to create around 2.7 lakh jobs, while nearly 1.5 lakh jobs can come in e-commerce. Other major areas for job creation include digital marketing (about 1.5 lakh) and banking and finance (three lakh).

The retail and automobile sector also have huge job creation potential. "Overall there would be a significant growth in terms of organised sector jobs in 2016 and sector-wise, recruitment in the startup space is going to be very strong. Other bullish sectors include BFSI, IT-ITeS and green energy mostly solar," K Pandia Rajan Chairman Ma Foi Group said.