PLI schemes will drive job creation in next two years: TeamLease report

60% of employers in survey express hiring intent; pharma has the highest positive hiring sentiment (68%) followed by white goods (67%) and textile products (62%)

Employment generation due to the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme is set to increase as 60 per cent of the employers surveyed expressed hiring intent over the next two years, says a report by TeamLease services.

The report titled “PLI Impact on Job Creation” mentions that as many as 71 per cent employers in small and medium sized organisations foresee an increase in hiring due to the PLI scheme, in contrast to only a fifth of the large organisations (22 per cent) anticipating hiring in the coming days.

The overall intent to hire across small and medium-sized organisations is highest in Indore (86 per cent) followed by Chennai (73 per cent) and Pune and Gurgaon (65 per cent each).

Nearly three-fourths of those who foresee more hiring think that the net incremental employment growth would be up to 20 per cent.

The report surveyed 344 mid to senior-level, talent acquisition managers across 14 cities and 8 industries in India.

The report notes that the pharmaceutical industry has the highest positive hiring sentiment (68 per cent) followed by white goods industry (67 per cent) and textile products (62 per cent).

Besides, the employers also appear to be optimistic about PLI with respect to its impact on employees’ productivity as close to 70 per cent employers think that employee productivity would increase as a result of the PLI, with the majority of these employers belonging to the small and medium sized industries.

Also, more than half of the employers surveyed (51 per cent) believe PLI has a very significant impact on business growth, with pharmaceuticals, large scale electronics manufacturing and textiles leading the way.

The report also notes that the boost from the PLI scheme is also expected to bring more diversity to the workforce in the form of increased hiring of women and people belonging to LGBTQ community as well.

Sumit Sarabhai, business head, TeamLease Services says that while cities like Gurgaon, Indore, Kolkata and Delhi still prefer hiring male candidates, cities like Chandigarh and Chennai are more inclined towards female employees.

“Interestingly, the pharmaceutical industry is also inclined towards hiring from the LGBTQ community. However, a few industries such as textile products, pharmaceuticals, and large scale electronics manufacturing believe that there will be a preference for hiring female employees as a part of the PLI scheme”, adds Sarabhai.

The scheme to promote domestic manufacturing was launched in April 2020 for large scale electronic manufacturing, which later was expanded to 14 sectors. It gives companies incentives on incremental sales from products manufactured in domestic units and invites foreign companies to set up units in India, in a way to generate more employment and cut down the country’s reliance on imports from other countries.

“Nearly two out of five employers (38 per cent) believe geopolitical factors may prompt the world to look at India as a sourcing partner. Slightly more than one out of four of employers (27 per cent) believe that IT and tech business opportunities are likely to shift to India as an impact of geopolitical factors”, the report noted.