East Indian job market struggling: Manpower study

Kolkata, Dec 22: The Indian job market is brewing with employers raising wages to attract top talent, according to Manpower, a global staffing firm, which surveys employers every quarter about their hiring intentions.

The report says, ''Wipro is even training its own engineers, because of a shortage of qualified graduates.'' According to Manpower Inc, Indian job seekers should head west, especially to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bharuch, Gandhinagar, Indore, Pune, Rajkot and Vadodara.

Manpower derives its employment outlook by taking the percentage of employers expecting to add jobs and subtracting those planning to cut. In India, the "net employment outlook" is a healthy 39 per cent for the first quarter of 2007. That's one of the best outlooks in Asia, and far ahead of China's 18 per cent.

The report says, ''India is not just about IT anymore. The mining and construction industries, in fact, are expecting to add more jobs than any other sector, as the government steps up spending on roads and airports. The government has woken up to the need for making India's infrastructure world-class,'' Manpower's India division head Soumen Basu said.

Western cities, particularly Mumbai and Pune, are traditionally the stronghold for financial and manufacturing careers. Information technology jobs, however, are concentrated in the south, which has a strong employment outlook as well. The southern cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad are still the best places for jobs in IT.

''If you're looking for a job in business process outsourcing, also known as IT enabled services, Bangalore is still one place to be. But you can travel north, as well. Delhi, and its suburb Gurgaon, are also hot spots for BPO jobs,'' the study said.

Eastern India, however, is still struggling. The employment outlook for the east, including Kolkata, Bhuwaneshwar, Cuttak, Guwhati and Patna, is 28 per cent for the first quarter of 2006, down nine percentage points from last year's.

''Bengal is struggling to meet the economic growth of the country as a whole,'' Mr Basu said.

UNI