Punjab and Haryana are offering more job opportunities in information technology, call centres, telecom sector, manufacturing and real estate business now than ever before.
The Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park, set up here four years ago, provides direct and indirect employment to over 40,000 IT professionals. IT giants like Infosys. Bharti Airtel, Tech Mahindra have set up campuses here. Infrastructure major DLF has also leased out space to smaller software companies at the tech park. In fact, about 300 IT companies have set their base in the tri-city area.
Sumit Singh, corporate relationship manager, Tricity Consultants said, ?Job opportunities were there in all leading companies or call centres, IT and telecom companies, who are providing software jobs in Chandigarh, Panchkula and Gurgaon and Mohali.?
Ashish Nagrath of Global Voice, however, said agriculture sector which had shown negative growth for many years had grown by over 4% in north and it would be a major driving force for Punjab and Haryana?s economic resurgence and creation of jobs in agro processing, food processing and marketing.
A recent survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry also confirmed that there will be 87.37 million new jobs by 2015 but job market would be fueled by the agriculture sector and not IT alone. Agriculture incidentally is the mainstay of Punjab and Haryana. The growth will also come from manufacturing sector, which will add 27.88 million new jobs. Trade will be next with 24.24 million jobs, following construction with 15.13 million. Tourism-related employment, information technology and IT-enabled services and financial services will also grow.
Deepak Kaishtha, head-Planman HR Consulting observe that telecom industry in the country has a big market potential and is a fast growing sector. He added with 3G spectrum auction, 16 new players have jumped into the bandwagon of the telecom sector, which would offer millions of jobs in 2010-11. He further said profitability may come down with competition brewing up but larger volumes of business would make up for small margins. Kaishtha said insurance sector would also throw more opportunities but these would not be direct jobs but on ?agency model?. Real estate sector would also bounce back in 2011.
Education and healthcare sectors would also have many opportunities in 2010-11. For example Jalandhar-based Lovely Professional University has already started recruiting many IIM and IIT trained professionals offering huge pay packages.
Udit Mittal, managing director, Unison international says that the country?s recovery has probably been the fastest among world markets and confidence levels have also risen in tandem. Energy, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals are among the sectors that have recovered. But the prospective employers are very cautious in raising headcount.