India to add 11.5 lakh jobs in first half of FY20: Report

Mumbai: India will witness an addition of 11.5 lakh jobs in the first half of 2019-20, led by travel, hospitality and BPO/ITeS, according to a report.

"The positive outlook created by the stock market rally and increased investments seems to be having a corresponding impact on the employment outlook. It has revived the net employment outlook which had witnessed a drop of 2 percent in the last half year to a 3 percent rise in the current half year," TeamLease Services executive vice president Rituparna Chakraborty said.

The buoyancy witnessed will also translate positively on the job creation front and, in fact, around 11.5 lakh new jobs will be created in the formal sector, Chakraborty said quoting 'Employment Outlook' report.

"Retail, logistic, educational services and fast moving consumer goods and durables alone will add around 1.66 lakh, 1.49 lakh, 1.17 lakh and 1.10 lakh jobs respectively," she added.

The report is based on survey across 19 sectors and 14 geographies among 775 enterprises in India and 85 employers across the globe to evaluate employment outlook trends.

It revealed that 11 out of the 19 sectors surveyed project an increase in net employment outlook, while 8 sectors anticipate a decrease in outlook.

Similarly, from a geography point of view also the net employment outlook stands positive.

A key contributor to the positive employment outlook has been the tier-II geographies, which apprehend a 5 percent increase in hiring sentiment, followed by tier III towns and rural area where hiring in projected to increase by 2 percent each.

The positivity is not restricted to sector and geographies, it is promising across hierarchies as well, except for senior-levels, it added.

The outlook for mid-levels is set to grow by 4 percent and the entry and junior levels by 3 percent each.

Further, the report also estimated a 5 percent jump in hiring across medium sized businesses while large and small enterprises are expected to witness a growth of 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

However, from a city drill down, the net employment outlook is a mixed bag with 7 out of the 14 cities covered in the audit indicating negative sentiments.

Pune (5 percent), Coimbatore (4 percent) and Indore (4 percent) are on the upward trajectory, while Kochi (-4 percent), Gurugram (-4 percent) and Hyderabad are pulling the growth momentum downward, the report said.

On attrition trends, the report revealed that out of the 19 sectors surveyed, attrition has significantly dropped in five sectors, including construction and real estate, IT, KPO, telecommunication and travel and hospitality in April- September 2018-19 compared to October-March, 2018-19.

Attrition in some sectors remained stagnant but increased in five sectors - agriculture and agrochemicals, educational services, FMCG and financial services and retail).

Attrition in BPO/ITeS was at a 19.12 percent and e-commerce and tech start-ups at 16.17 percent.