Jobs are passe in manufacturing sector

The manufacturing sector is not creating new jobs any more, thanks to automation and voluntary retirement schemes.

An early reading of 246 companies' 2004-05 annual reports, shows an aggregate reduction in staff by almost 4,000 to 598,044 against 600,044 employees 2003-04. The study does not include listed public sector companies as their annual reports for 2004-05 are not yet available.

Of the 246 manufacturing companies, 120 reduced their staff by 17,497 in 2004-05, while 115 companies created 14,550 fresh jobs. The staff strength of around 11 companies remained unchanged.

While the manufacturing sector has been cutting its flab, information technology (IT) sector continues to be a big employer adding 37,580 heads in 2004-05. Private banks with their retail push are the second biggest employer in 2004-05, adding 10,159 people even as public sector banks pruned 1,107 jobs.

Thanks to IT companies and private banks, the aggregate picture shows that 302 companies (manufacturing plus IT companies and banks) created 42,632 jobs in 2004-05. The headcount of 302 companies stood at 14,04,643 in 2004-05, up from 13,62,011 in 2003-04.

The 246 companies in the manufacturing sector employed 598,044 (600,044), 14 information technology firms 141,691 (104,111), 21 public sector banks 613,488 (614,595) and 11 private banks 51,420 (41,261).
 

EMPLOYMENT BLUES
CREATORS
In numbers	Financial year
	2003-04	2004-05	Change
Wipro	32000	46500	14500
Infosys Tech	23377	32178	8801
Satyam Computer	14032	19164	5132
ICICI Bank	13609	18000	4391
HDFC Bank	5673	9030	3357
I-Flex Solutions	2974	4747	1773
IDBI	2802	4530	1728
Hexaware	2343	3833	1490
UTI Bank	3447	4761	1314
Aztec Software	467	1405	938
DESTROYERS
In numbers	Financial year
	2003-04	2004-05	Change
Mafatlal Inds	6569	3596	-2973
Tata Steel	42511	39648	-2863
SBI	207039	205515	-1524
Triveni Engg	3771	2637	-1134
Lakshmi Mills	4496	3596	-900
Century Textiles	20540	19816	-724
Birla Corp	12311	11687	-624
Bajaj Auto	11531	10914	-617
Indian Rayon	7625	7012	-613
Grasim Inds	15971	15363	-608

Pharmaceutical companies beefed up their research and development activities by hiring more personnel, though marketing and sales divisions accounted for a larger share of new jobs added during the year.

On the whole, domestic pharmaceutical companies added jobs, while multinationals cut their flab. Fifteen pharma companies created 981 new jobs with seven Indian companies, led by Wockhardt, Ranbaxy, Nicholas Pharmaceuticals and Matrix Labs, creating 1,485 jobs and eight MNCs cutting 504 jobs.

The buoyancy in hospitality industry saw 1,156 new jobs being added by five hotels.

Engineering firms added 1,463 jobs and automobile outfits added 443 fresh jobs in 2004-05. The initial trend shows that textile firms are not recruiting people with 17 companies collectively cutting over 5,000 jobs.