New Wage Rate Index series released; base year revised to 2016 from 1963-65

Source: Business Standards, 25 November 2021

Ministry of Labour on Wednesday released a new series of Wage Rate Index (WRI) with base year 2016, being compiled and maintained by the Labour Bureau, an attached office of the ministry.

The new series of WRI with base 2016=100 will replace the old series with base 1963-65, a labour ministry statement said.

The government periodically revises the base year for major economic indicators to reflect the changes in the economy and to capture the wage pattern of workers, it said.

Thus, as per the recommendations of International Labour Organization, National Statistical Commission etc, the base year of WRI numbers has been revised from 1963-65 to 2016 by the Labour Bureau to enhance the coverage and to make index more representative.

The new series of WRI has increased the scope and coverage in terms of number of industries, sample size, occupations under selected industries, weightage of industries etc.

Professor S P Mukherjee and other members of the expert group on Minimum Wages & National Floor Wages were of the opinion that this base revision of WRI will play a critical role in coming out with minimum wages and national floor wages along with other parameters which will be decided in due course of time by the expert group.

The new WRI series would be compiled twice a year on point-to-point half-yearly basis, as on January 1 and July 1 of every year.

The weighting diagram in the new WRI series has been prepared from the results of the Occupational Wage Survey (seventh) round.

Total 37 industries have been covered in the new WRI basket as against 21 industries in the 1963-65 series.

The selected 37 industries in the new series are categorized as 30 industries from the manufacturing sector, 4 industries from the mining sector and 3 industries from the plantation sector.

The earlier series had 14 industries from the manufacturing sector, 4 from the mining sector and 3 from the plantation sector.

In the new WRI basket, the current wage data has been collected from 2,881 units under 37 selected industries as against 1,256 units under 21 industries in the old series.

About 700 occupations have been covered under 37 selected industries in new series of WRI.

The weights used in WRI series in both series were the base year estimated employment figures in respective occupations in each selected industry.

The weighted average of the occupation level indices in an industry, weights being the base year estimated total employment bill in each occupation, gives WRI at the industry level.

Similarly, the weighted average of the industry/sector level indices, weights being the base year estimated total employment bill in each industry/sector, gives the sectoral/All-India Index.

The sector level weights under the new series has changed in comparison to old series. The weight of the manufacturing sector has increased substantially over time whereas the weight of the plantation sector and the mining sector has declined under the new series vis–vis the old one.

Total 16 new manufacturing industries have been added in the new series of WRI basket, including synthetic textiles, textile garments, printing and publishing, footwear, petroleum, chemical & gases, fertilizers, drugs & medicines, among others.

In the new series, oil mining industry has been introduced in the basket in place of mica mines industry, to make the mining sector more representative of the three different kinds of mining namely coal, metal and oil.

Total 3 plantation industries namely tea, coffee and rubber have been retained in the new WRI basket with enhanced coverage.

Hiring activity up 4.1% in September

Mumbai: Hiring activity is finally picking up steam among Indian companies. The job index, Naukri JobSpeak, increased by 4.1 per cent in September, compared with August. In terms of the three-month moving average, the index inched up from 715 in August to 719 in September this year, making it one of the best months since April-May when the job index was as low as 664.

Recruitment went up across all experience levels, with the highest growth in hiring for freshers and trainees, up by 39 per cent. The report, which covered 41 industries, saw a positive trend in September across sectors and cities. There was a double-digit increase in hiring activities across 14 industries and a single-digit increase in 13 sectors, while 11 functional areas reflected a dip.

In The Job Market

• Hiring activity in Mumbai and Chennai highest in September 2009
• Recruitment in ITeS/BPO and real estate industries saw an increase of 18.3% and 36.8%, respectively
• Hiring for HR and administrative professionals gained momentum with an increase of 21.4% and 10.4%, respectively
• Employment of freshers and trainees showed an increase of 39%

ITeS and BPO services saw a significant push in hiring last month, increasing by 18.3 per cent compared with August. Real estate and retail also bounced back, with an increase of 36.8 and 12.2 per cent, respectively, but were still considerably away from August 2008 levels.

Of the top 13 cities, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi-NCR saw an upward trend in hiring, at 9, 8.4 and 3.5 per cent, respectively. The smaller cities of Ahmedabad and Vadodara witnessed double-digit growth rates at 11.8 and 12.5 per cent, respectively.

“The secular trend is positive across sectors. Had it not been for an early festival season, we may have seen a further improvement in the index. The good news is that the IT and BPO sectors — which are big employers, especially at entry and junior levels — seem to be in positive territory after a long time,” said Hitesh Oberoi, director and COO of Info Edge, which operates Naukri.Com.

However, banking & finance and oil & gas sectors saw a drop in hiring activity by 6.5 per cent and 4.6 per cent, respectively, in September compared with the previous month.

Source: Business Standard 21/10/09

Infosys to hire 1,000 in US

HOUSTON: Indian software firm  plans to hire about 1,000 people in the US in the next 12 to 18 months amid a gloomy job market.

In an interview with the local media, Infosys Chief Executive Kris Gopalakrishnan, who is currently in Seattle for Microsoft’s CEO Summit this week, said that the company plans to add more than 100 new employees as part of a big US expansion in anticipation of growth resuming in 2010.

Altogether, Infosys plans to hire about 1,000 people across the US over the next 12 to 18 months, he said. Already, 14,000 of the company’s 1,04,000 employees are based in the US.

“We believe business will be there if we add capabilities, more services and solutions to our portfolio and increase the business volume with the existing customers — that’s how we see growth coming to our business,” Gopalakrishnan said.

Regarding the recovery in the Indian economy, he said that it is in, “Very early stages.”

Gopalakrishna said, “I hope it is sustained and picks up. The difference with the US is in the US it has gone from 2-3 per cent in GDP growth to approximately zero, about a 3 per cent decline.

“India has also declined 3 per cent — it’s gone from 8 to 9 per cent growth to 5 per cent to 6 per cent. On the positive side it’s still 5 to 6 per cent growth, but the decline is similar, actually.”

Hoping the gathered executives will have insights into what fundamental changes will result from the downturn, so they can distinguish between the greed that marked the financial meltdown and innovations that were happening, he said.

“If you look at the Internet boom, everybody jumped in, many of those companies got funded, lots of money was poured in,” he said. “Of course many of those companies failed, lots of money was lost but some good things happened — some companies emerged very strong, became the leaders in that space…”

Gopalakrishnan clearly sees the dangers in industry consolidation and in changes in the nature of outsourcing, with more businesses taking the same tack as they have with their internal IT organisations by looking at business process applicability rather than discrete technical capability.

Infosys seems well-oriented to adapt to this new world since Gopalakrishnan identifies their value proposition as a strong knowledge of customer businesses.

Source : Economic Times 22/05/09

 

 

India’s best employers

Hindustan Zinc, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, ITC-Welcomegroup, and LG Electronics India are among India’s 25 best employers, according to a recent study by Hewitt Associates. Hewitt, in its sixth ‘Best Employer in India Study 2009’ in partnership with magazine Outlook Business, has enlisted these companies, led by HCL Technologies, which provide the best working environment for employees.

The study states that despite wide variance in industries and company profiles, the firms share some common winning traits such as alignment of people practices to the overall business strategy of the firm and an environment which creates a positive employment experience even in challenging times.

Source: The Econmic Times

No job losses in India after April: Commerce Secretary

With key industrial sectors like automobile and steel showing signs of recovery, the government today said it expects arrest in further job losses in a month or two.

“I think by April end whatever job losses would be there that’s the end… No more job losses will take place,” Commerce Secretary G K Pillai told reporters.

The situation would stabilise from May onward, he said. However, Pillai said orders for exporters would pick up after the Christmas.

Automobile and steel sectors had posted a healthy growth in February. The domestic steel output went up by 2.8 per cent to 4.74 million tonnes in February.

Domestic passenger car sales went up by 21.8 per cent to 1,15,386 units in February from 94,757 units in the same month last year.

President of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations A Sakthivel last week had also expressed confidence about demand for low priced Indian merchandise reviving in the US stores from May.

Half a million jobs were lost during October-December 2008, according to the Labour Ministry estimates. The export oriented sectors such as gems and jewellery, autos, and textiles were affected the most as exports started declining since October.

Source: Business Standard 26/03/09

No job losses after April: Comm Secy

With key industrial sectors like automobile and steel showing signs of recovery, the government today said it expects arrest in further job losses in a month or two.

“I think by April end whatever job losses would be there that’s the end… No more job losses will take place,” Commerce Secretary G K Pillai told reporters here.

The situation would stabilise from May onward, he said. However, Pillai said orders for exporters would pick up after the Christmas.

Automobile and steel sectors had posted a healthy growth in February. The domestic steel output went up by 2.8 per cent to 4.74 million tonnes in February.

Domestic passenger car sales went up by 21.8 per cent to 1,15,386 units in February from 94,757 units in the same month last year.

President of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations A Sakthivel last week had also expressed confidence about demand for low priced Indian merchandise reviving in the US stores from May.

Half a million jobs were lost during October-December 2008, according to the Labour Ministry estimates. The export oriented sectors such as gems and jewellery, autos, and textiles were affected the most as exports started declining since October.

Source: Business Standard 26/03/09