Auto Sector May See Job Creation Despite Sales Slump: Survey

New Delhi: The automobile industry is expected to see creations of new jobs in the coming months even as the sector is going through sales slump, according to a survey by job portal Naukri.com.

The Indian auto market has slowed down in the last few months owing to a combination of various factors like hike in taxes and rising fuel prices, the survey said.

Majority of the recruiters, which is about 65 percent, expected creations of new jobs in the coming months, although they are cautious in their sentiment, it said.

"... about 11 percent recruiters anticipate a hiring freeze and about 5 percent say that there could be layoffs as well," the study on recruiters from the auto sector said.

A similar survey done in the beginning of the year had seen none of the recruiters predicting any layoffs or hiring freeze, Naukri.com added.

The overall growth in the hiring activities for the sector remained more or less flat in the first half of the year, it added.

"June 2012 onwards, there has been a continuous month on month dip in hiring activity. August saw 14 percent lower hiring than June and 12 percent lower than what it was six months ago," the portal said in the study.

Mentioning about the increments offered to the employees, about 57 percent recruiters said the range was between 10 percent and 15 percent, while 25 percent recruiters said increments given were less than 10 percent.

Commenting on the development, Info Edge India Senior Vice President (Marketing and Communications) Sumeet Singh said: "Although the overall hiring activity in the auto sector had been moving at a steady pace in the beginning of the year, the sliding auto sales has resulted in companies cutting down their production units and lowering their recruitment plans."

The employers will prefer to adopt a cautious hiring approach for the coming quarters, he added.

Car sales in India declined by 18.56 percent to 1,18,142 units in August this year, the biggest drop in 10 months. Total two-wheeler sales in the month decreased by 4.50 percent to 10,57,925 units.

The overall vehicle sales in the country also registered a drop of 3.9 percent to 13,54,436 units in August this year, the biggest decline in more than three and half years.

With car sales posting decline, industry body SIAM had said that its forecast of registering a growth of 9-11 percent in this fiscal was unlikely to be met.

For the April-August period this fiscal, car sales stood at 7,52,440 units as against 7,45,991 units in the same period last year, up 0.86 percent.

Source: PTI