April Hiring Developments

The harsh funding crisis that startups went through had repercussions for the larger tech industry. The "employee's market" effectively changed to become the "employer's market" as a result. The job market will likely stabilise soon, which could be a sign that the worst is behind us if recent news undercurrents are anything to go by.

The last four weeks did not see big budgeted job hiring announcements like the previous two months, when professional services firms BDO and PwC said in February they would hire as many as 55,000 people between themselves over the next few years. This was followed by a formal announcement by Taiwanese EMS giant Foxconn last month that it is looking to hire at least 50,000 people for a new mega manufacturing plant in the country.

But several other companies discussed their hiring plans in the immediate future.

All in all, companies announced plans for around 7,000 new jobs that they will be creating in the near term. The important distinction is that most of the new job announcements this month will be completed over the following twelve months, as opposed to the previous two months, when the major hiring plans announced were to be carried out over the following few years.

More importantly, this number represents statements related to just around ten organisations, and not all companies that are in the process of hiring are making public statements, so the actual number of new jobs that would be available is many times this number.

Among some notable hiring plans—with around a thousand or more jobs—announced recently were by companies in the hospitality, IT, FMCG, and advertising fields.

In the hospitality business, budget hotel chain Lemon Tree said it is planning to add at least 2,000 workers for its new hotel openings this financial year. This would increase the total workforce from the current level of 7,000. Not in the same league, but Leela Palaces Hotels & Resorts said that the luxury hospitality chain is looking to hire 800-900 associates to support its expansion plans this year.

This is in continuation of the previous month, when ?India Hotels Company, the name behind Taj Group of hotels, said it will hire 8,000 people by 2025. The travel and hospitality industries are seeing strong demand as consumers pack their bags for holidays after lying low for the last 2–3 years under the pandemic scare. The pick up in business travel is also pushing up job activity in the sector.

In the IT sector, which is facing a challenge with a slowdown in demand in developed markets, SAP Labs India is planning to hire around 1,000 employees. Similarly, all startups are not in layoff mode. Three-year-old beauty products startup RENéE Cosmetics plans to hire around 1,000 people across functions.

Communication and advertising major Publicis Groupe also said it remains on a hiring drive. It did not spell out the number of people, but back-of-the-envelope number crunching shows it could be looking to add as many as 1,000 people as it is on course to double its workforce in four years (it has hired 2,500 people in the last three years, and the headcount stands at 6,000 currently).

Then there are others who have announced plans to add hundreds of new employees, like Eventbrite, HARMAN, D.E. Shaw and AdCounty among others.

The broader Indian hiring landscape, however, remains cautious, as the Naukri JobSpeak Index showed. But certain sectors, led by the banking & financial services industry, are showing unprecedented demand in terms of new jobs.

The job market may not be rocking, but it is certainly active.