Should only Americans and Europeans be worrying about their jobs? What's the employment scenario like in Mumbai? With conflicting reports emerging every day, can you be certain your job's safe? And if you're job-hunting, can you afford to be picky? We asked Naukri.com's Hitesh Oberoi

At the very outset, Hitesh Oberoi, CEO and MD, Info Edge (the company that has a presence in 31 Indian cities, Dubai, Bahrain, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi and owns Naukri.com as well as a host of other online classifieds companies that offer matrimonial, real-estate and education services), is quick to assure us that companies are still hiring people here. So, while on the one hand, the IIM graduate admits, "There is certainly a slowdown in hiring activity," he also points out, "We are still growing so it's not like it was back in 2008." Here's a clearer picture of what's to come:


Hitesh Oberoi, CEO and MD, Info Edge, the company that owns Naukri.com,
at his Delhi office. pic/ Rajeev Tyagi

The big question on everyone's mind is what's 2012 really going to look like? Will there be enough jobs to go around or are people going to get laid off? Are pay-cuts in the pipeline?
We started the financial year on a very positive note; the first and second quarters have been very good. On the whole though, we have seen a slowdown in (hiring) activity. It's not like a recession, not as bad as 2008 and 2009, but there is a slowdown in company growth. So while companies are still hiring employees, they're not hiring people like they were before. For instance, if a company was hiring 200 people a month, it may be hiring 40 people a month now. Still, very few companies (such as Telecom companies who've been badly hit, for instance) may actually resort to laying off employees. Salaries are not going to be as good as they were last year but double-digit increments may be on the cards if the economic scenario improves. We do expect hiring activity to slow down for one or two quarters (the next three to six months), after which, it's hard to predict what will happen because there's a lot riding on the budget, government policies, public sentiment and the international economic scenario.