2011 brings good news, salaries to grow 20%

Job aspirants in India can uncork the bubbly and celebrate two weeks before New Year. With companies on a hiring spree, average pay increase for 2011 in India will be 20% compared to 8-12% this year, according to the country’s largest staffing company.

A survey by Ma Foi Randstand has revealed that the organised sector in the country hired 1.13 million people — more than the company’s prediction of a million new jobs being created.

“Gone are the days of expecting a 50% pay hike,” said E Balaji, director and president, Ma Foi Randstand. “But a better-than-expected economic recovery has made many sectors increase hiring. Salaries should see a 20% increase next year.”

The survey found that economic expansion is creating a huge demand for people — from bricklayers to engineers.

It reflects a more-than-anticipated growth for freshers as well as experienced executive in a few sectors, including healthcare, real estate and construction and hospitality. “Some of the public sector banks have not hired for the last 15 years. The hiring has opened many doors,” said Balaji.

Earlier this month, Manpower, an employment agency, in its Global Employment Outlook survey, upped its forecast for hiring for the next quarter.    

With employers in all sectors forecasting a headcount growth in the next quarter, Manpower’s net employment outlook is 42%, up from 37% a year ago.

Policy wonks in New Delhi have raised the economic growth forecast for the year ending March 31, 2011, to 8.75% from 8.5%, after an improved performance seen in agriculture. However, many believe that it is too early to say that Asia’s third-largest economy is out of the woods and back to its pre-crisis pace of expansion.

Management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company, according to a report, predicts that by 2030, the number of people living in India’s cities will swell from the present estimate of 340 million to about 590 million.

“More jobs need to be created in the organised sector as more people are migrating to the city every day,” said Prathima Manohar, founder of Urban Vision, a think-tank that deals with problems posed by urbanism. “Or [else] more people will slip into working in the unorganised sector.”

Less than 3% of country’s total workforce is employed in the unorganised or informal sector.