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The ongoing 2G regulatory mess in telecom is taking a huge toll on the job market in this sector. New players such as STel and Etisalat DB, which have decided to exit post the Supreme Court ruling on their 2G licences, is in the process of laying off almost all of their employees.
STel has asked most of its 500 workers to leave after paying them two months advance salary while Etisalat has offered to absorb about 80 per cent of its 1,000 employees in the UAE-based telecom company's operations in other countries.
Uncertain future
Other new players such as MTS and Uninor, which want to continue their operations, are struggling to retain their workforce as they face an uncertain future post the licence cancellation. Uninor has, in fact, done its annual appraisals in February, one month ahead of schedule.
But employees of the new operators do not have many options within the telecom industry as incumbents have also clamped down on fresh hiring. In fact, incumbent players such as Airtel, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications have restructured their operations recently, which have resulted in nearly 6,000 people losing their jobs. The combined lay off by the old and new players has led to a glut of telecom executives.
“While there is a glut in the mid and junior levels, there has been a complete freeze on hiring in the telecom sector over the past 5-6 months, except for a few strategic positions There are not enough positions open as new telecom companies are exiting and those who remain are not making investments in network expansion,” said Mr Dony Kuriakose, Director, EDGE Executive Search Pvt. Ltd.
This is a far cry from three years ago when the telecom space was the hot spot for employment. According to one industry estimate, as many as one lakh people were hired by telecom companies between 2008 and 2010. This has now reduced by 80 per cent, according to HR firms tracking the sector.
Slump in hiring
But market watchers think that the pace of hiring will pick up as the industry consolidates. “The slump in hiring is only short term. As the sector stabilises and as operators move to newer technologies like 4G and beyond, there will be fresh demand for people. Of course, the nature of job may change,” said Mr Alok Shende, Principal Analyst, Ascentius Consulting.
According to Mr Rohan Mehta, AVP (Telecom practice), Elixir Consulting, players that are serious will continue to hire. “Only those operators that want to exit are losing out but serious operators are hiring. Even in the current scenario we definitely have clients who are doing fresh hiring as per their requirement.”
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