After shedding over 1 lakh employees in last 2 years, telcos may hire 33,100 in H1 FY20

After losing over 1 lakh employees in the last two years, the telecom sector is set to turn net hirer in in FY20, reports The Economic Times. An industry executive told the paper that the last two years barely saw any hiring, amid the financial turmoil and rapid industry consolidation. “There was barely any hiring in the last two years because of consolidation and now we expect a five percent increase by FY20-end,” the executive added.

To help with network digitisation and preparing for 5G, telcos are targeting companies such as Microsoft, Google, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HCL Technologies, Ericsson and Nokia for recruitment.

In FY17, the sector employed about three lakh people directly and indirectly at tower firms and operators. The same currently stands about 1.8 lakh.

Some operators were forced to exit, merge or become defunct as a result of intense competition. 2018 witnessed the consolidation of the country’s telecommunications market into three large private players- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio Infocomm.

However, industry revenue is expected to rise in FY20 and recruiters say that hiring will happen across levels. Few areas where employee strength could increase include content, digital marketing, machine-to-machine (M2M), internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), among others.

Experts say that while some senior-level hiring at salary levels above Rs 1 crore did take place in the past few years, recruitment has begun for other grades as well, the report stated.

Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder of staffing firm TeamLease Services, told the paper, “The current demand is primarily for highly specialised skills in the junior to mid-level hierarchy in the two to five years (experience) bracket,” adding that the estimated job creation for the first half of FY20 is 33,100. She said the advent of 5G is one of the main reasons why the industry will hire people.