Walmart told the U.S. government privately in January that India’s new investment rules for e-commerce were regressive and had the potential to hurt trade ties, a company document seen by Reuters showed.

The Times of India reports that in a bid to push labour reforms, India’s Union Cabinet approved a bill to merge 13 central labour laws into a single “code” which will apply to all establishments employing ten or more workers. The also bill provides for a single licence regime for staffing firms, thus significantly improving their ease of doing business. “The proposed Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Bill, would enhance coverage of workers manifold,” a statement from the Cabinet said. The code would be applicable to all establishments employing ten or more workers, where any industry, trade, business, manufacture or occupation is carried on, including IT establishments or establishments of service sector. The proposed changes are intended to improve ease of business while also giving enhanced protection to employees by mandating certain norms. Many of India’s labour laws, though intended to protect workers, have been seen to discourage formal employment while providing incentives for graft.

The Monster Employment Index for India recorded a 2% decline in online recruitment activity for April 2019, when compared to the same period a year ago.

The index is a monthly gauge of online job hiring activity by Monster.com, which records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth.

Production and Manufacturing (up 32%) and Travel and Tourism sector (up 26%) registered the steepest increase in year-on-year online recruitment activity.

On the opposite end, Agro-based industries recorded the most notable annual decline among all monitored industry sectors even in April 2019 with a 44% decline.

Among occupation groups, Engineering /Production (up 3%) registered the steepest increase in online demand.

At the same time, Marketing & Communications professionals registered the steepest annual decline among all monitored occupation groups with a 9% decrease.

Delhi-NCR (up 7%) led all monitored cities by the way of annual growth. Kochi (down 23%) followed by Baroda (down 12%) registered steepest decline on the year.

India has a lower unemployment rate than the rest of the Asia Pacific region, but the government is not satisified with it, reports Business Standard. Citing data from the International Labour Organisation, Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said India’s employment rate stood at 3.5%, lower than the 4.7% rate in China and the 4.2% rate in Asia Pacific. Gangwar said “India’s situation is better than other countries, but we are not satisfied with it”, and added that people in the country want “stable and government jobs.” Gangwar said the government is very active in creating employment adding that in the formal sector, there has been an increase of at least 10 million jobs each year in the past four years. The statistics overlook the large informal sector in India where employment is unregulated. Gangwar said he had no information on the decline of jobs in the informal sector.

Richard Lobo, executive VP, head of HR for Infosys, discusses three ways offices in India can prepare for millennials in an article in Quartz India. Those ways include creating an integrating culture, encouraging synergy between individuals who focus on their individual knowledge while delivering a common purpose, and taking a new look at employee experience through the lens of a consumer.

As job roles evolve in India, the majority of professionals feel daunted by the rapid pace of changing skills, according to a report from LinkedIn.

LinkedIn’s ‘Future of Skills 2019’ report, conducted with ACA Research, found that 82% of professionals in India feel that the skills needed to succeed are changing rapidly and 62% feel daunted by the pace of change.

More than half, or 60%, of the employees in India feel that time is the most significant barrier they face in pursuing their Learning & Development goals, and 37% think it is the cost factor that acts as a hindrance.

At the same time, 46% of Indian organisations feel the lack of engaging learners acts as a barrier to deliver successful Learning and Development programmes, while 44% of organisations admit that adapting training for younger employees is a challenge.

“Certain skills are becoming less in-demand as different skills are needed to succeed, therefore upskilling talent is key for organisations to meet their business goals,” Ruchee Anand, Head of Talent Solutions and Learning Solutions, LinkedIn in India said.

Anand added that paying attention to skills is crucial in recruitment, as previous job titles may not always be an accurate measure of a professional’s capability and adaptability strengths in this new world of work.
According to LinkedIn, the top three skills that are witnessing a rise are robotic process automation, compliance, and continuous integration.

As of July 1, reduced rates of contribution required under India’s Employees’ State Insurance Act take effect.

The IT and software sector has remained the undisputed leader among industries for job creation in India during May 2019, according to data from job portal Shine.com.

Among the other top-performing industries in May include the manufacturing industry, which has gained significant scale since May 2018 and was second only to IT and software.

Meanwhile, the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing)/call centre industry that was in third position on the list in May 2018, has dropped out of the top five job-creators’ list. Telecom/ISP (Internet Service Provider) has found itself on the top ten list, while the Aviation industry has seen a significant slowdown and is now at the tenth position on the list.

Among cities, Pune has entered the top five list of maximum job creators and has removed Delhi from its high position. On the other hand, Delhi has witnessed a significant slowdown, reaching the fifth position on the list. According to Shine, while metro cities have been absorbing maximum professionals, over the past year, this is the first time a tier 2 city has shown such remarkable growth. Other than Pune, the data suggests Bangalore, Mumbai, and Gurugram have bagged top positions on the list

Neha Kaul, Head of Brand and Growth Marketing, Shine.com said, “The jobs landscape is booming on the back of technological disruption across all sectors. It is heartening to see the substantial growth of key industries such as IT/Software, Manufacturing and Quality/Testing. Tier 2 cities such as Pune have also shown considerable job growth making it evident that industry development is underway across all major sectors and geographies.”