Amid mixed signal of growth post the demonetisation period, the Indian job market seems to be posed to pick up where it left off. Leading recruitments and staffing firms have noted that hiring across several sectors is likely to increase by 50% as compared to the November-December levels, says a news report.

Leading recruitment and staffing firms like TeamLease Services, ABC Consultants, Quess Corp, Antal International, PeopleStrong and The HeadHunters have said that organisations in varied sectors like banking, consumer, infrastructure, retail and engineering, have started eyeing a bump in hiring activities. Company heads and experts expressed major confidence and optimism in hiring activity in the coming months. Hiring is expected pick up for all levels, from entry to senior levels.

With remonetisation slowly bringing back liquidity, and consumer spending witnessing revival post a slump, organisations in FMCG, retail, consumer goods, durables, logistics, pharmaceuticals, banking and auto are expected to ramp up hiring efforts, which had been put on hold, or suspended altogether, post demonetisation. Experts believe that other than real estate and luxury goods, most other sectors are on their way to swift recovery, and are likely to bounce back soon. This means that hiring goals that had taken a backseat will now be the focus, and some leaders expect more hiring activity this year, as compared to last year. Despite uncertain global environment, which could be detrimental to the IT sectors, experts are of the opinion that the impact will be muted, as digital and mobility technologies and payment banking are expected to witness impressive growth, leading to increased hiring.

Hiring in the economy suffered a severe blow, across sectors, as nearly 86% of the currency was pulled from the system instantaneously, leading to massive shortages of cash. Organisations had chosen to focus on dealing with this impact in the last few months, but now that positive signs of recovery are visible, operations are also slowly inching towards normalcy. Optimism among recruiters and staffers is surely another signal that recovery is well underway, and things will get back to pre-demonetisation levels soon. However, this is no reason to get complacent for the economy still needs support to get up and running again. Reports show that some essential indicators, which measure things much bigger than demonetisations’ impact, are still sluggish and struggling. While several proposals of the budget are sure to hasten the speed of recovery, there is no doubt that a lot needs to be done. 

To that extent, efforts to attract investment need to be ramped up considerably, and policies to ensure that those employed in the agrarian sector enjoy the benefits of the bumper monsoon last year need to be in place, which in turn will ensure positive domestic consumption. Furthermore, conducive environment and opportunities need to be presented to the industrial and services sector – especially MSMEs – to ensure a speedy recovery, and reinforce that sentiment that the worst is over. At the end of the day, demonetisation was a disruptive policy, and now that the disruption is behind us, the dust is beginning to settle down. It will be exciting, interesting and challenging to propel the economy forward in globally turbulent times, and the economy, government and organisations have their task cut out ahead of them.