Blog: Layoffs are galore, but so is hiring

Employee Relations

Layoffs are galore, but so is hiring

The tide is turning in the Indian job market after seeing a grip of hiring slowdown in the past few years
Layoffs are galore, but so is hiring
 

Layoffs in the US are happening across industries and this could probably result in an increase in the currently-falling unemployment rates.

 

One of the biggest economic giants, the United States started off the year on a not-so-positive note. The economy has seen huge layoffs with many of the big organisations cutting of thousands of jobs. Layoffs in the US are happening across industries and this could probably result in an increase in the currently-falling unemployment rates.

The biggest layoffs are being witnessed in the tech industry. Corporate giants of the tech industry, Microsoft and HP have seen two of the largest employee cuts. HP announced a mega job cut of 21,000 positions; with the company’s layoffs starting in 2012, the number has now crossed 55,000. The main reason behind this huge cut is the fact that HP, which currently has over 300,000 employees, is now splitting to form two corporations. Microsoft, on the other hand, indicated towards 15 per cent employee layoff which amounts to 18,000 jobs; large chunk of this cut will be mainly from the acquired Nokia, as revealed by CEO Satya Nadella. Other companies that have made similar announcement in the tech industry are Dell, Intel, Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard, etc. As per American news reports, the industry is set to see a layoff increase of 92 per cent from last year.

Tech sector is followed by the oil industry. While almost everyone seems to be rejoicing the price dip of oil, companies dealing with its trade seem to be bearing the cost. Industry giants Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Halliburton are laying off 9000, 7000 and 1000 jobs respectively. Not just in the US, fall in oil prices are likely to result in job cuts across the globe for this sector.

In the E-commerce sector, eBay early in the year announced that it would be cutting as many as 2400 jobs (accounting for 7% of the company’s total workforce) by the first quarter of 2015. The finance service provider, American Express also announced layoff of 4000 of its employees i.e. 6% of its total employees to cut costs. The decision mainly came after the company’s failure to meet its long-term growth target. The largest cut, however, is being speculated to be seen in IBM, the multinational technology and consulting company with its 100,000 layoffs which accounts for 26 per cent of its total layoffs. This is mostly likely a result of the company’s strategy of restructuring.

On the other hand, the tide is turning in the Indian job market after seeing a grip of hiring slowdown in the past few years. Many big recruitment firms including, Randstad, ABC Consultants and Human Capital Solutions said that the job market in India is going to see an upward trend. Human resource experts believe that job market in 2015 is going to be in a strong hiring mode and companies are preparing themselves for aggressive recruitments across industries.

The hiring in India is said to increase by a minimum of 5-10 per cent in the first quarter of the year. By mid-2015, this number is likely to increase to 22 per cent. In total, India Inc. has promised creation of 10 lakh new jobs.

While the tech industry in the US seems to be seeing a downfall in terms of job creation, the same industry in India is seeing big numbers when it comes to hiring.

Reliance Industries Chairman, Mukesh Ambani at the launch of Make in India also promised to create 1.25 lakh new job opportunities. Make in India, which is going to turn India into a manufacturing hub, is not only going to take the Indian economy to great heights but also improve the Indian job market and impressively impact the country’s per capita income.

With the 2015 Union Budget putting g great emphasis on skill development and education, it will help prepare a number of youth for jobs. This will curb the talent crunch issue that India is currently facing. Further, the budget has also set aside fund allocation for the SME sector, which is likely to boost hiring. As per reports, Indian startups are likely to create 3 lakh jobs in another 5 years

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Topics: Employee Relations, #HRIndustry, #ChangeManagement, #Trends

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