Manufacturing sector set to perform well in 2013: RecruiteX Hiring Projections 2013

The year 2012 was not a very good year for the manufacturing sector. According to TimesJobs.com’s data, during the July-December 2012 period, the manufacturing sector witnessed growth in demand for talent only during the months of October ’12 (10 per cent) and December ’12 (14%).
In an exclusive interview with TimesJobs.com for the bi-annual RecruiteX- Hiring Projections 2013, Aditya Narayan Mishra, President Staffing & Director Marketing, Randstad India, said, “Faced with strong headwinds of poor global and domestic markets, high fuel prices, power shortage and lack of availability of credit, the performance of the manufacturing sector, including the automobile industry has been below expectation in 2012. Negative growth rate in IIP and moderate GDP growth reflects the same.”
However, optimism prevails, as experts believe 2013 would prove to be a better year for the sector. They believe it all goes up-hill from here.
According to Mishra, “Manufacturing is a prime economic and societal pillar for India which will continue to drive growth and employ a large workforce.” He believes that the reasons for the same are as follows:
1. The recent initiatives and reforms taken by the Indian government will further enhance the attractiveness of the manufacturing sector and increase its contribution to the country’s GDP.
2. The industry is also gradually moving up the value chain and as a testimonial to this trend we see multiple MNCs setting up captive R&D centres in India, leading to increased hiring of specialist talent.
3. In 2013, government, academia and industry will act in conjunction with each other to make India gain more competitive advantage as against its stronger competitors from around the world.
TimesJobs.com data validates this sentiment, as the manufacturing sector witnessed a 13 per cent growth in demand for talent in March 2013. According to Goodwin, the second half of 2013 would a turning point for manufacturing sector and 2014 will see good times again.
Talking about the sector’s future outlook for compensation trends Dr. Siddhartha Pandey, Chief People Officer (Group Head HR), Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd, said, “In the near future, the compensation trends will be more or less the same. But, the situation is going to change fast and the compensation trends would change as well.” He believes that human resources, financial positions like CFO will be picking up momentum in the coming months.