Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea And Bharti Airtel To Ramp Up Hiring By 25% In FY24: Report

Telecom giants — Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, are expected to increase their workforce at least by 25% to their existing headcount by FY24, according to a report by The Economic Times.

The demand for more people in jobs is set to rise in the telecommunications sector due to 5G technology. The hiring sentiment, which slowed down during Covid pandemic, picked up pace in FY23 in the telecom sector in FY23.

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"5G has played a big role (in the hiring activity) as there were a lot of 'point-in-time' jobs created during the year. This, coupled with the digitisation efforts by enterprises, led to an increase in telecom needs (of enterprises)," Sekhar Garisa, chief executive, staffing firm FoundIt (formerly Monster), was quoted as saying by ET.

Overall headcount in these three telecom giants increased nearly 35% on-year to 175,000, according to data provided in their respective annual reports. Jio's total headcount at FY23 end was 95,326, Airtel's 64,407 and Vodafone Idea was 15,604, according to company disclosures.

According to a Livemint report, telecommunications and allied sectors are set to witness 40-45% hiring growth over the next couple of years, with the last 3-6 months recording a 30-36% rise in job offerings.

The demand is expected to be primarily led by emerging segments such as whitespace spectrum, 5G, virtual network operations, network security, IoT in big data, cybersecurity specialists, and cloud, recruiters said, the report further added.

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As stepping into FY24, hiring momentum in contractual or temporary profiles is expected to continue as telcos focus on network expansion, 5G monetization, and retail activations.

“What we are seeing is a 100% increase in temp positions leading up to the festive season across network and sales profiles in service providers,” Kartik Narayan, chief executive – staffing at TeamLease, was quoted as saying by ET.

In the case of Vodafone Idea, hiring contractual workers could work as a cost-saving method, since the pay scales for contractual workers are lower in most profiles, according to an industry expert.