IT/ITes is no hot sector for job seekers post meltdown

BANGALORE - The global meltdown has knocked out the information technology and enabled services (IT/ITes) as the top job creator and pushed it to the fourth place, says a survey on hiring trends in 2010.

The healthcare and hospitality sector has emerged on top of the list, says the survey of 13 industry segments in eight Indian cities by human resource provider Ma Foi Randstand.

Bangalore, the nation’s tech hub, put up a dismal performance in job generation with just 6,381 in these segments.

In contrast, the nation’s capital Delhi and its surrounding region created 37,683 jobs, followed by Mumbai at 26,724 and Chennai at 11,851 positions.

Besides IT/ITes, healthcare and hospitality, the segments covered in the survey included realty, media and entertainment, education.

“The IT/ITes sector has moved to fourth position post recession. The sector which registered highest numbers in job creation in 2004 and 2005 is still to recover completely,” K. Pandia Rajan, managing director and chief executive officer of Ma Foi Randstad, told reporters here.

“The IT sector that boosted the Indian economy in this decade created 33,000 jobs this year compared to 60,000 jobs each in 2004 and 2005,” Rajan said.

However, “the Indian software companies are benefiting from pickup in services-spending in the United States, meaning the business is dependent on the still recovering sector,” Rajan noted.

The meltdown affected the global market early 2007 leading to termination of thousands of jobs across the world.

The Indian IT/ITes companies put hiring on hold for in 2008 and 2009.

The survey was conducted among 650 companies across 13 industry segments in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkota, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad.

The survey noted that in the healthcare and hospitality, like other sectors, the market is domestically generated.

“The business depends on the policy of the government. Several schemes have generated lakhs of jobs in these sectors,” Rajan said.

The healthcare industry created 121,000 jobs in the first three quarters of 2010, followed closely by the hospitality sector with 63,000 jobs. The third in line was real estate and construction with 48,000 jobs.

The survey revealed that a total of 4,18,564 jobs were created between January and June 2010. And by the end of September 2010, Indian industry is set to generate another 3,20,400 jobs in total, Rajan said.

“This is a clear trend of positive hiring spread across all the sectors and it is set to grow in the coming quarter too,” he added.