HR Headlines: Jan-09 (Part-12)

Job Losses Affect Men More Than Women
According to experts, job losses caused due to the economic crisis have hit men much harder than women in the workplace. This is mainly because male-dominated industries like construction and transportation mainly borne the brunt of job losses. On the other hand, women-dominated sectors are still growing, like government and healthcare. According to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, four-fifths of the 2.74 million people who lost their jobs between November 2007 and November 2008 were men. The biggest losses came in construction, where 87 percent of the work force is comprised by men. Also, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, men's employment as a ratio of the population dropped by 2.7 percent, while the ratio among women's dropped 0.8 percent from December 2007 to December 2008. The unemployment rate among men rose to 7.9 percent from 5.0, while among women, it rose to 6.4 percent from 4.8 percent, the agency said.
Source: 23-01-09 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Job Creation Report By Assocham
According to a report by industry body Assocham, the prospects of job creation in the India's IT sector dropped by 46 per cent in the last quarter of 2008. The prevailing global economic recession with the Satyam episode further dented sentiments. In the sectors of IT, financial services and hospitality sectors, prospects of jobs creation declined by 38 per cent in October-December 2008 compared to the preceding quarter of the year. Employment creation registered a growth rate of 124 per cent in the July-September period, while it posted a growth of 238 per cent in April-June.In the hospitality sector, job creation dipped by 43 per cent during October-December as against 157 per cent growth during July-September 2008.
Source: 22-01-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Info Edge (India) Limited Reports An Increase in Topline In Q3 Results
Info Edge (India) Limited has announced results for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 and reported a net profit of Rs.172.12 million compared to Rs.130.92 million for the corresponding quarter in FY 07-08. Info Edge recorded a total income of Rs.701.76 million compared to Rs.600.96 million in the corresponding quarter last year. EBITDA increased by 25.83% at Rs.261.99 million as compared to the corresponding quarter in FY 07-08. Verticals apart from Naukri.com (including 99acres.com, Jeevansathi.com) incurred a loss of Rs.49.44 million as compared to Rs.33.01 million at the EBITDA level for the same quarter last year. For the nine month period ended Dec 31, 2008 the loss at the EBITDA level is Rs.211.93 million compared with Rs.105.55 in the last year. It may be noted that Shiksha.com did not exist last year. 99acres.com and Jeevansathi.com have achieved a growth in Revenues at 37.4% and 27.2% respectively. Total expense including interest & depreciation increased by Rs.51.03 million as compared to the corresponding quarter in FY 07-08.
Source: 22-01-09 www.naukri.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Slow Campus Hiring At Wipro
Indian tech major Wipro has fallen behind in its hiring of students to whom it has made campus offers. In the third quarter of the current fiscal, Wipro added 1,900 people to its pay rolls. Of this, 1,400 were through campus hiring and 500 from lateral hiring. However, it is still short of hiring 6,000 from the campuses. Since the company would not be able to place all of them in a job in this fiscal, it could honor the campus offers into the next fiscal. For FY-10, Wipro has already made campus offers to 8,000. Compared to this, Infosys has hired 27,000 people against its commitment of 25,000 people. For FY-10, it has made campus offers of 20,000.
Source: 22-01-09 www.dnaindia.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

No Salary Hikes At Yahoo!
In an attempt to curtail costs to beat the global economic slowdown, Yahoo! Inc has frozen employee salaries for this year. The decision came just a few days before Yahoo! announced its annual earnings for the last quarter of 2008. According to industry insiders, the newly-appointed chief executive Ms Carol Bartz is setting up new strategies to bolster Yahoo! Inc.
Source: 23-01-09 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Maruti To Hire 700 Staff
Bucking the trend of shedding employees in the wake of the current economic slowdown in the auto industry, the country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India has decided to hire around 700 people in various departments in the next fiscal. It raised its headcount by 745 in the current fiscal.
Source: 22-01-09 www.indiainfo.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Paramount To Hire More Than 1000 Staff
Even in today tough scenario for the aviation industry, Chennai-based Paramount Airways plans to hire more than 1000 people including 500 pilots and 600 cabin crew in the next two years. The staff expansion is part of the company plan to increase its nation-wide presence and a five-fold increase in fleet size by 2011. Hiring would begin shortly. The airline deploys a higher number of flight attendants than the industry average as it offers only business and first class configuration. Currently, Paramount has about 125 pilots and 150 cabin crew members.
Source: 19-01-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

No More Lateral Hiring At TCS
The country largest IT services provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), would freeze its lateral hiring, or recruitment of experienced hands. Also, the company says the next year salary hike would be in the single digit per cent range. However, the IT major will honour its commitment on hiring 24,800 people during financial year 2009-10. The company has already made campus offers and is confident that it will honour all commitments. For FY09, the hiring target is about 30,000-35,000, of which 30,430 are already on board.
Source: 19-01-09 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Microsoft To Slash 5,000 Jobs; None In India
Over the next 18 months, software giant Microsoft will slash 5,000 jobs. The jobs will be eliminated in R&D, HR, marketing, sales, finance, legal, and IT. However, its India operations would not be impacted by the layoffs as there would be no job cuts in India. The company is undertaking extra measures to control costs, including the reduction of head-count-related expenses, vendors and contingent staff, facilities, capital expenditures and marketing.
Source: 22-01-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Family Scion Becomes New President Of Toyota
Toyota Motor has named Mr Akio Toyoda as its new president. He is the grandson of Toyota founder Mr Kiichiro Toyoda. The company is currently facing its biggest ever crisis as it vies with General Motors to become the world largest automaker. Mr Akio Toyoda, 52, will be the first member of the founding family in 14 years to become president.
Source: 21-01-09 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr Vicky Bindra Appointed GE Capital President
Financial Services company GE Capital has appointed Mr Vicky Bindra as its president and chief executive officer with immediate effect. In his new role, he will be leading all the consumer and commercial financial services businesses of GE.Capital in India.
Source: 23-01-09 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr Madhav Quits As Maytas Infra CEO
Mr P. K. Madhav has resigned as chief executive of Maytas Infra. In his resignation, he expressed his inability to continue as CEO of the company in view of his attention and energy being used to handle the legal matters pertaining to the Nagarjuna Finance case.
Source: 20-01-09 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

International Job Losses Galore
There seems to be no respite from layoffs internationally. Companies across countries and across sectors are shedding jobs to fight the deepening economic crisis. Intel Corp would close its manufacturing plants in Malaysia and the Philippines and its only remaining factory in Silicon Valley, thus cutting as many as 6,000 jobs. A global electronic components firm TT Electronics will axe 700 jobs this year after shedding 600 posts in 2008. German retailer Metro AG will axe around 15,000 jobs from its global work force in the wake of the deepening economic downturn. Car rental firm Hertz will slash more than 4,000 jobs. Diversified U.S. manufacturer Eaton Corp plans to cut 5,200 jobs. International luxury clothing brand Burberry will close a sewing plant in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, and shed up to 290 jobs. The chemical maker Rohm and Haas Co plans to slash 900 jobs, or 5.5 percent of its workforce. The Dutch-owned food group Vion is axing 820 jobs throughout the group.
Source: 21-01-09 news.yahoo.com, bbc.co.uk Compiled by Amresh Anjan

US Jobless Claims Surge
As the US economy's downward spiral accelerated, the number of U.S. workers lining up for state jobless benefits shot up last week. In the wake of the current economic scenario, companies are slashing jobs, creating a vicious cycle for an economy mired in a year-long recession. After the swearing-in of President Obama, this is the first major set of grim economic data. The President is working to implement a rescue plan quickly and create jobs. According to data provided by the Labour Department, first-time applications for state jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 589,000 in the week ended January 17 from 527,000 the previous week.
Source: 22-01-09 news.yahoo.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Europe: Employees On Sick Leave Can Avail Holidays
As per a ruling by the European Court of Justice, employees on long-term sick leave are entitled to take all holiday they have accrued when they return to work. The ruling also states that in case, workers were fired or left a firm, they must receive holiday pay equivalent to the time they were unable to take while ill. With this verdict, the long-held dispute over whether holiday rights accrued are lost after prolonged illness has been cleared.
Source: 20-01-09 news.bbc.co.uk Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Ericsson To Slash 5,000 Jobs
Swedish firm Ericsson AB has decided to axe about 5,000 jobs. The company is looking at cost cutting initiatives as its net income declined 31 per cent to 3.89 billion kronor for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2008. Around 1,000 job losses will be in Sweden, primarily in Stockholm.
Source: 21-01-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr Richard Parsons To Be New Citi Chairman
Mr Richard D Parsons will take over as chairman of battered Citigroup from February 23 replacing Mr Win Bischoff, who retires later this year. Currently, Mr Parsons is the lead director and chairman of the board's nomination and governance committee. Sixty-year-old Mr Parsons is an experienced corporate leader and has earlier worked with Time Warner in positions of president, chief executive officer and chairman.
Source: 22-01-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

No PF Trust For Companies In Loss For 3 Yrs
EPFO has decided that companies, which are in loss for the past three years will not be entitled to continue with their own PF trust. Additional Central Provident Fund Commissioner Mr P Sudhakar Basu has said that the EPFO had notified field officers last month to take special note to a clause incorporated in 1993 which enables EPFO to cancel exemption extended to those making loss for three consecutive years.
Source: 20-01-09 Indian Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Management Changes At Lintas Media
Lintas Media Group (LMG) has reshuffled its senior management structure. Mr NP Sathyamurthy has been elevated to become President and COO. He would be in charge of the group western region operations and the digital collaborative. On the other hand, Ms Sudha Natarajan will take over as President and COO, in charge of the Group Northern operations in addition to its southern operations.
Source: 19-01-09 www.exchange4media.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New CMO At Tata Teleservices
Mr Lloyd Mathias has has been appointed as chief marketing officer at Tata Teleservices Ltd. He had recently quit Motorola as Senior Director - Sales & Distribution. Based out of Mumbai, he will report to Mr Anil Sardana, managing director, Tata Teleservices Ltd. Mr Mathias possesses years of experience in sales and marketing. He has been directly responsible for the success of some of India biggest brands like Motorola mobile phones, PepsiCo beverages, UB Spirits, and Onida TV.
Source: 17-01-09 www.exchange4media.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Worst Unemployment Situation In China In Decades
Official urban unemployment rate in China jumped for the first time since 2003 and may rise to an almost 30-year high as exports slump and recession deepens in the world third-biggest economy. Registered unemployment was 4.2% as of December 31, 2008, Mr. Yin Chengji, spokesman for the ministry of human resources & social security, said. A rate as high as the government 4.6% target for this year, which was announced by Mr. Yin, would be the worst since 1980, official data show. Mr. Premier Wen Jiabao earlier said that the government must do more to preserve social stability in the face of a ery grim job outlook.
Source: 21-01-09 www.financialexpress.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Nomura Gets A New Head
Mr. Tarun Jotwani will be replaced by Mr. Vikas Sharma as the country head of Japanese investment bank Nomura International in India. Mr. Sharma was earlier Nomura investment banking head in India.
Source: 23-01-09 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Merrill Pays Its Employees Bonuses Before Sale to Bank of America
Merrill Lynch has accelerated the payment of bonuses to employees just a few days before its acquisition by the Bank of America, as per a media report. errill Lynch took the unusual step of accelerating bonus payments by a month last year, doling out billions of dollars to employees just three days before the closing of its sale to Bank of America, the report said.
Source: 22-01-09 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Malaysia Seeks To Trim Its Foreign Staff
Fearing that the economic crisis will lead to more job losses for locals, Malaysia Government has banned the hiring of new foreign workers in the manufacturing and services sectors. Home minister, Mr. Syed Hamid Albar said there was no reason to bring in foreigners after the human resources ministry report showed 45,000 people would be laid off over Lunar New Year at the end of the month. The government will soon announce second economic stimulus package following a $2 billion plan unveiled last November to help companies and workers who have lost their jobs because of the crisis.
Source: 22-01-09 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Govt Attempts To Reassure Techies Over Employment
Prime Minister's economic panel has clarified that would not be any enduring unemployment for professionals in the IT industry, thus allaying fears of loom and doom in employment situation in India due to the global financial meltdown. Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman Mr Suresh Tendulkar that without underestimating the hardships faced by workforces in certain sectors, he saw no basis for gloom and doom which has been imported from abroad. He insisted that in the rural markets, there was no evidence of significant turbulence and it was playing an immense role for corporates going to villages.
Source: 23-01-09 www.financialexpress.com

Compiled by Amresh Anjan