Driven by scarcity of talent and increasing competition, India Inc is expected to hike salaries in the new year with the pharma, telecom and consumer goods companies leading the space with up to 12 per cent pay hike, global consultancy Ernst & Young (E&Y) says.
The salary increments are likely to improve relatively, albeit conservatively in 2010, compared to the single-digit hikes seen across hierarchies, functions and performance levels last year.
"In spite of all the excitements, actual salary increases will be somewhat conservative with salary increases in the IT and technology firms to be around 8 per cent with pharma and consumer goods companies leading the space with forecast increments of around 10-12 per cent," E&Y Partner and Global Leader (HR Advisory) NS Rajan told PTI.
The telecom growth story would continue in 2010 with an above-average salary hike expected in the sector, Rajan added.
Other sectors which would continue to battle the talent war owing to crunch include energy, power and real estate.
India Inc's overall salary increase for 2010 is forecast to be between 9 per cent and 12 per cent, according to the survey.
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Meanwhile, adversely hit by rupee-dollar fluctuations and the global slowdown, export-oriented sectors like IT/ IT-enabled services, textiles would tread cautiously.
The IT sector is likely to give increments in single digits, which will perceived to be conservative as compared to hikes forecast for other sectors, Rajan said.
Moreover, after months of rigorous cost-cutting and recruitment freeze or job cuts in some cases, companies in most sectors look forward to increase their headcounts in the next few months as well.
"Majority of the firms in the pharmaceutical, chemical, auto/auto components, insurance, education, retail and IT sectors will lead hiring in 2010," Rajan said, adding however, the pace of hiring may not be back to the 2007 levels for the majority of these sectors.
E&Y believes that insurance would be a bulk hiring sector as the country is largely under insured. Moreover, the retail sector will also be talking big numbers with respect to hiring with majority of the retail chains looking to add close to 1,000 people annually.
Other sectors which may face manpower crunch in the coming include auto/auto components, healthcare and education.
According to official statistics, the education sector faces a shortage of 8,00,000 teachers in the primary and upper primary schools and over the next 10 years, secondary schools would have to recruit 5,00,000 teachers.