Sunday, November 18, 2012

Hiring Freeze in Pharma Industry.

A survey by leading employment portal in India, Naukri.com, reveals hiring freeze in the Indian pharma industry, 11 percent recruiters saying no to hiring new staff in coming quarters.

New Delhi: The overall economic crunch has resulted in companies adopting a cautious approach in their hiring plans. Naukri.com, a major job site in India, in its survey on the pharma sector revealed a drop in overall hiring sentiment.

Around 51 percent recruiters are expecting to add new jobs in the second half of 2012, which is 16 percent lower than what was predicted by them in January 2012 survey. Similarly, in January 2012 none of the recruiters had predicted a hiring freeze in 2012, while now 11 percent recruiters are saying that hiring will come to a halt within the next six months.

Mr Sumeet Singh, senior VP, marketing and communications, Info Edge India, said that, "Although the overall hiring activity in the pharma sector has been moving at a steady pace in the first half of the year, recruiters are now preferring to adopt a cautious wait-and-watch mode for the coming quarters."

On what increments were given out to employees in 2012, 59 percent of recruiters said that the range was within 10 percent-to-15 percent and about 25 percent said that increments given out were less than 10 percent. Talent crunch seems to be an important issue being faced by recruiters in the pharma sector as 73 percent said that it is very difficult to find talent that would be suitable for the job profile.

A deeper analysis of the job scenario for the sector shows that about 33 percent jobs created in the pharma sector in 2012 are from Mumbai, 12 percent from Hyderabad and 11 percent from Bengaluru. Most job openings in the sector are for jobseekers having three-to-five years of experience.