Job search activity soars!

Experts in the recruitment industry have been suggesting that in the current scenario it is best to wait and watch and hold on to your current jobs. On the contrary, job portals have recorded a significant rise in jobseeker activity in the month of November.

myJobsinPune.com has seen over 70% rise in job search and applications to posted job positions. A similar trend is seen on myHderabadJobs.com, the two leading city centric job sites in India.

There are obviously the freshers who continue to look for jobs, but at the same time people looking to switch jobs is growing. Also, given the pressure on costs, companies are preferring to advertise their vacancies on job portals rather than expensive traditional media. The number of new job postings on the two city centric sites is also seen to be growing steadily. The trends seem to suggest that people are still bullish about new opportunities, even as overall industry sentiment remains bearish.

Experts believe that the Indian economy will swing into action once again post financial year ending 2008 – 09. Maybe now is the right time to start searching for jobs, identify opportunities in sectors that suit you and be ready to move when recruitment activity soars in April 2009.

Good news trickles in ... things aren't as bad as they seem!

News about companies cutting jobs in the West continues, the latest being Citibank. It is to cut 52000 or so jobs; 14% of its global workforce! But none yet in India is what it says.

There is slowdown in job growth in certain Indian sectors, and there is no denying that. But is the story in India as bad as it is in the west? Here are some statistics that suggest otherwise...

At a time when major financial institutions worldwide are announcing job cuts to survive, India's largest lender, the State Bank of India (SBI) said it would add 25,000 jobs this fiscal. Another national bank, Bank of India will hire 10,000 people over the next few months.

Accenture wants to hire 10,000 people by 2010, MetLife, a new private insurance company, will recruit 30,000 agents and 2,000 managers by March 2009. The top B schools in India, Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) have placed all their students for next year, top IT companies plan to hire 65,000 more this fiscal, the list goes on...

So where are the companies that are trimming jobs in India? These are the rapidly growing firms that are having to adjust to a 15% growth instead of the anticipated 30%, says a top financial planner in the country. Well, its still growth!

And the Indian economy? It is expected to grow between 7 and 7.5%. That is a substantial adjustment of 2% downwards. Well, it is still a much better growth rate that we had 4 years ago.

So then, is India a problem, or the solution? Some say its the later. There is news that Nottingham Chamber of Commerce, has had record numbers of export documentation in Sept and Oct, the've never been busier. Export oriented companies are hiring in the UK while several British businesses are cutting jobs owing to low domestic demand.

All in all, good news for the Indian jobseeker! myJobsinPune.com and myHyderabadJobs.com, two leading city centric jobs sites in India continue to see local jobs being added on the sites every day...

Pune – the next metropolitan city in India!

Pune will soon acquire the status of being a metropolitan city in India. When it does, Pune will be the 7th metro city in India. In a study conducted in October, Assocham placed Pune in the number one position in business environment, infrastructure availability, real estate cost and availability, educational institutes and employment opportunities.

Pune has distinct advantages over other contenders to do so. It is the education hub of Western India and has high availability of skilled labour. The University of Pune is rated among the top in the country. Pune also has a high literacy rate at 80%.

Rapid pace of development, continued investments in various sectors and a fast emerging real estate market, among other aspects, gives Pune a strong employment outlook. Of the top upcoming tier II cities in India, Pune has the highest share of jobs at 33% of the total jobs tracked by Assocham for the first half of 2008.

Pune will get a further boost once the authorities start implementing plans for infrastructure development, road transport and other public services.

Lots of job opportunities and exciting times ahead for Puneites. So, if you haven’t found your dream job in Pune yet, keep checking www.myjobsinpune.com regularly as new jobs are added to the site every day.

Pune bullish in slowing economy!

The stock markets in India have gone back 4 years. The automobile industry has had a slow Diwali, Aviation sector is in trouble and retail spending is low. There is caution in the markets and people are spending carefully. But is it crisis yet?

Experts believe that the growth path that the Indian Economy is on is irreversible. We believe so is Pune! Lets look at the industries that drive Pune’s economy; Manufacturing, IT/ITES, Automobiles and Auto Ancillary have traditionally been driving Pune’s growth. The investments that these industries have been attracting in the past few years have resulted in a boom in the retail and hospitality sectors.

Nasscom recently said that the Indian IT Industry is insulated from the financial crisis that has hit many economies globally. It also says that Indian IT companies have not stopped hiring professionals either.

As for the Automobile industry, on one hand, it is expected to grow slower at 6%, in the current scenario, against earlier projection of 12%. On the other hand, Super Luxury cars like Rolls Royce, Bentley and Volvo are making inroads to the Indian markets, hoping to offset the impact of lower sales, global. General Motors and Volkswagen are already building huge facilities in Pune’s auto-cluster.

The hospitality industry is seeing high investment as there is a significant shortage of hotel rooms in the city, especially in the business and luxury segment and large retail spaces continue to come up too.

Although the current economic scenario has made people cautious, it should only improve retention, especially in 'high staff turnover' sectors such as ITES and BPO. This is enabling companies to focus on recruiting newer skills for expanding their businesses instead.

Companies are bullish on Pune, as they continue to invest in the city, leading to more jobs being created. myJobsinPune.com is seeing steady growth in the number of jobs across various sectors and believes that this will only get better in 2008-09.

-Saurabh

Find the latest jobs in Pune on www.myJobsinPune.com, Pune's only dedicated job portal.

Welcome!

Hello from the Saongroup.com India team. We are a network of city centric job sites in India, with operations in

Pune – http://www.myjobsinpune.com/,

Hyderabad – http://www.myhyderabadjobs.com/

... and soon expanding into all the major cities in India.

As part of our various initiatives in India, we are constantly sourcing information on the Indian Job Markets, the Indian Employment Scenario and the growth of the Online Industry in general. We do publish some of this research in the press, and we will share some more through this blog. As they say, knowledge grows by sharing …

Lots of stuff happening in India right now... Economy continues to grow, US senate approves the Indo-US deal, western companies continue to outsource jobs to India, Nomura of Japan saves thousands of jobs- buys out Lehman India. These are some of the issues I will be discussing in the next few days... So keep checking back and add your comments and suggestions.

Saurabh