Big Companies still hiring amidst recession

I guess everyone would have been shocked on hearing that only 10 companies visited IIM-A this year on Day Zero of their placement season. More suprising was the fact that there were only 25 offers made with the highest being Rs. 25 lacs per annum.

Amidst such a bloodbath scenario which is taking place in the job markets in India, it is a pleasure to know that some of the big firms are actually hiring and their requirements are huge. A recent report stated that hiring figures have actually increased in January majorly in the IT, BPO, telecom, banking, education and hospitality sectors. Niche sectors such as legal, governmental and defence keep up the momentum on an upsurge by recruiting fresh talents.

Biggies such as LIC require around 45,000 employees and SBI are looking upto a figure of adding 25,000 fresh talents. Petroleum sector companies such as Bharat Petroleum and Indian Oil also look to add a few thousands over a period of next couple of years. The educational sector looks the most stable with many state governments announcing openings for lecturers and professors in various state universities. The openings here are around 50,000.

Metro, a German retail enterprise, plans to open six wholesale centres in Punjab with an investment of Rs 900 crore (Rs 9 billion). This should happen in the next two-three years. Punjab has launched three major projects including a business centre, bus terminal and hospital with a combined capital outlay of Rs. 10,413 crore. A knowledge based industry township comprising of companies is scheduled to open shortly in Kerala which would be offering around 90,000 jobs. A requirement of around 25,000 cops in Andhra Pradesh and around 40,000 jobs in the nationwide media sector looks good too.

Coming to the most hit Automobile & Aviation sector which have been the worst hit; the good news is that Ford India & Paramount Airways are looking for fresh hirings in numbers of 1000 and 500 respectively. Reliance Life Insurance also needs around 1,00,000 emloyees by the year end.

With other openings in different states for BPOs, police, firemen, doctors etc. in substantial numbers, the scenario looks quite good now.

The question to be answered is - Has India Inc. faced recession boldly and made necessary amends ?

Who's next to be hit by recession ?

It's bloggers' turn to be hit by recession

Developers, consultants, trainers, team leaders have all become victims of the recession facing the IT/ITeS sector. A fresh entrant — The Bloggers — can soon meet the same fate. With marketing budgets of corporate going lean, professional bloggers, who blog for a living, may be the next to front the slump spank.“The current economic recession has scared people. Bloggers are facing the wrath of the recession, especially in US and Europe. Online ad-spend by advertisers has come down due to the current cash flow problems. But advertisers haven’t completely stopped online advertising; they have stopped new online ad campaigns but are running existing ones on blogs,” said Vikram Deo, blogger (http://www.nampblog.com/).

However, all is not glum on the blogging front.ET reports "Traffic is up and experts feel the India blogging market has a lot of potential that is yet to be explored.The blogging phenomenon in India has just started and it will grow soon as more people get access to the internet. Today, internet penetration is just 4% in India.”

India doesn’t have blogs like Techcrunch or Gigaom whose revenue runs into millions of dollars.Many individuals maintain blogs as a means to express themselves, connect with individuals, find opportunities and build a personal brand. These activities may become more important during a recession when jobs are scarce.The professional blogging community might find it hard to duck their way.

Nearly 95% of blogs don’t expect to earn real money. The top 1% will survive since production costs are low. The 4% remaining of small blogs trying to make money will have a bad year in 2009 and many will become just hobbies.

Posted by - Jaspreet Kaur.