Daily News
View All NewsIndia – Foreign professional numbers falling
The number of foreign professionals working in India decreased by -11% in the first nine months of 2014, compared with the same period in 2013, according to a survey from recruitment tendering platform MyHiringClub.Com, reports business-standard.com.
There were 9,000 fewer foreign professionals working in India in September 2014, compared with January 2014, with the number falling to approximately 30,000.
The survey of over 2,000 employers found that the majority (63%) prefer to hire candidates with domestic experience, compared with 37% who prefer to employ expat candidates due to their international experiences.
Rajesh Kumar, CEO of MyHiringClub.com attributes the fall in recruitment activity to "social and cultural problems with expat candidates, [a] higher cost of hiring [them], and [the] availability of the same skills in Indian candidates".
Almost 70% of expats were being hired for higher level positions in the firms, while the rest were hired for middle or lower level positions.
"What is most interesting to notice in India is that most of Indian employers are not preferring to hire expat candidates," Mr Kumar said, adding that hiring expat professionals has been steadily declining since 2012, whereas it had been increasing at the rate of +10% to +12% per annum before that.
"This decline [is expected] to continue for next few more years," he said.
The biggest decrease in expat professional recruitment was in Retail (-15%); followed by Telecom (-12%), Fast-Moving-Consumer-Good/Fast-Moving-Consumer Durables (FMCG/FMCD) (-10%), Pharmaceuticals (-8%), and IT/IT-enabled-Services (-7%) between January-September 2014, compared with the same period last year.
Bucking this trend was the automotive industry, which reported an increase of +10% in the number of expat professionals recruited during the first nine months of the year, compared with last year.