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The upcoming general elections are set to play a key role in the job market, with HR experts pinning their hopes on a stable government to help create over two million new jobs and boost hiring activities by 30-40% this year.
As per estimates of various human resource consultants and executive search firms, India Inc need to hire 12-14 lakh new workers in 2014 to meet their existing business needs.
However, hiring activities may accelerate substantially if the Lok Sabha polls results in a stable government with minimal alliance partners and consequently more than 20 lakh new jobs can be created during 2014, consultants say.
Across various sectors, companies in India are estimated to have created over 10 lakh new jobs last year, but weak economic trends also resulted in large-scale layoffs and considerably cut into net job market addition during 2013.
In the run-up to polls, which begin tomorrow and will continue till May 12, the job market has already seen a major upsurge in demand for professionals in areas like media, PR, event management, market research and social media as political parties spend big-time to woo voters.
However, most of these hirings are temporary in nature and any major boost for permanent or longer-term employment opportunities would largely depend on poll results, which will be announced on May 16.
Experts believe that future hiring activities would get a major boost if verdict is for a stable government with minimum allies, as such an outcome would lead to an increase in investments and add to the economic growth momentum.
"A stable government with minimal allies shall definitely contribute towards a positive job landscape," said Rituparna Chakraborty, Senior VP & Co-Founder of leading HR consultancy firm, Team Lease Services.
Chakraborty, who is also President of Indian Staffing Federation, said that India needs to create jobs in excess of two million this year.
Echoing similar sentiments, leading executive search firm Global Hunt's Managing Director Sunil Goel said that new job creation may witness 30-40% growth if the polls results in a clear verdict.
"A full majority for any political party will bring the firmness and long-term good policy impact to grow the economy and create job opportunities in the market rather than just having the policy to get vote bank," Goel said.
Going by various employment index, the Indian job market is showing an improvement on a month-on-month basis since the start of this year.
The Monster.Com Employment Index, a monthly gauge of the country's online job demand, is on an uptrend since October 2013.
