Shared office space manager WeWork Cos is exploring a deal to take majority control of its affiliate WeWork India ahead of the New York-based company’s plans to go public, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Hiring activity in India registered a 16% growth in April 2019 when compared to the same month of 2018, according to the Naukri JobSpeak Index.

The Naukri JobSpeak Index for hiring activity for April 2019 stood at 2,477 which is 16% higher from April 2018, when it stood at 2,139.

The IT-software industry recorded the highest growth at 39% in April.

Hiring activity in Delhi and Chennai increased by 13% each. Mumbai and Hyderabad saw hiring activity increase by 11 and 19%, respectively. Pune and Bangalore registered an increase of 11 and 23%, respectively.

“The JobSpeak index for the financial year 2018-19 remained consistent clocking in an average of 12% growth in hiring. This financial year has started with a 16% growth in hiring in April with more companies tapping into the talent pool across sectors,” InfoEdge India CMO Sumeet Singh said.

More than half, or 60%, of millennials in India are seeking flexible working options to maintain work/life balance, reports Times of India, citing survey data from job portal Shine.com. The survey data also found that 13.8% sought flexible working options to avoid traffic while 6.3% wanted flexible working options to save costs on commuting. The survey was conducted with professionals across functional areas including accounts and finance, production and HR working in full time jobs. Meanwhile, 39% of employees mentioned that they would like their employer to offer flexible working options every day and 31% said they would like the option to work from home once or twice a month. However, 22% of respondents said that a challenge they faced was the inability to stop working even after office hours.

More than a third, or 37%, of senior HR professionals in India are focusing on making changes in job descriptions to swiftly adopt changing trends, according to survey data from job portal Shine.com.

Shine also found that 47% of senior HR professionals are predicting a skills shortage in the country in the near future.

“As organisations are rapidly adopting technology to streamline processes and make them more efficient, traditional job roles are undergoing massive transformation. Diversified job roles that require more wide-ranging skill sets are emerging,” Shine stated.

Zairus Master, CEO, Shine.com, commented, “As new job roles enter the market, we are already seeing job descriptions evolve. Skills which wouldn’t typically be found in the same role earlier are now being combined to create more multidimensional profiles. Hence, the traditional resume formats are now becoming irrelevant.”

“Jobseekers will need to amplify the appeal of their resumes by highlighting the relevant job skills that they possess,” Master said. “For instance, data entry professionals will now need to acquire data science skills to be able to land high-value jobs. At this juncture, upskilling/reskilling is a good option for professionals looking to augment their career growth trajectory.”

Shine emphasised the need to upskill/reskill the workforce to meet the evolving nature of jobs. The survey showed more than 54% of the HR professionals surveyed said they will invest in large scale re-skilling in their organisations. Furthermore, until the skills of the workforce are aligned with business goals, 38% of the respondents will focus on developing a rewards strategy to attract and retain gig economy workers.

The survey added that since upskilling/reskilling is a relatively gradual process, the focus of organizations will remain on revamping job profiles and hiring professionals who can fulfill these multi-faceted job roles that are more demanding and skill-based than ever before.

When he was chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat in 2011, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off an ambitious project to develop a financial hub in the style of Singapore or Dubai.

Human cloud ride-sharing firm Ola has suspended online food delivery service Food Panda’s delivery business and laid off approximately 40 mid- to entry-level employees and terminated the contracts of most of its 1,500 food delivery executives, reports Livemint citing sources familiar with the development. Ola acquired Food Panda’s India business on December 2017 but Foodpanda has reportedly struggled to grow and compete with rivals Swiggy and Zomato, and UberEats over the last couple of months. With the suspension of the food delivery business, Ola is reportedly in talks with on-demand delivery services such as Dunzo and Zomato to relist its cloud kitchen brands. Foodpanda will focus only on running the cloud kitchen brands instead of a food delivery business.

Net employment generation in the formal sector stood at 814,000 in March 2019, up from 788,000 in February, reports the Economic Times, citing data from the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation. The formal sector refers to work provided by licensed organisations, that is, those who are registered and pay GST. This represents approximately 6% of work in India, most of which is conducted via informal working.

During March 2019, the highest number jobs were created in the 22-25 years age group with 225,000 jobs, followed by 214,000 in the 18-21 years age bracket. Approximately 6.75 million jobs were generated in the entire 2018-19 fiscal year. The EPFO said the data is provisional as update of employee records is a continuous process and gets updated in subsequent months. The EPFO added that these estimates may include temporary employees whose contributions may not be continuous for the entire year.

The unemployment rate in India edged up to 7.6% in April, up from 6.7% in March, and the highest rate since October 2016, according to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy.

According to Reuters, the April figures could spell trouble for Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a general election that will end on 19 May, with opposition parties criticising the government over weak farm prices and low jobs growth.

“The lower unemployment rate in March was a blip, and it has again climbed following the trend of earlier months,” Mahesh Vyas, head CMIE, told Reuters.

The CMIE said in a report released in January that nearly 11 million people lost their jobs in 2018 after the demonetisation of high-value banknotes in late 2016, and the chaotic launch of a new goods and services tax in 2017, hit millions of small businesses.

India’s government recently withheld jobs data because officials said they needed to check its veracity. The government usually only releases official unemployment data every five years.

Following a leak which showed the jobless rate in 2017/2018 rose to its highest level in at least 45 years, India has said it will now release jobs data once a year.

Jet Airways’ pilots’ union has appealed to India’s top court to direct State Bank Of India (SBI) to release interim funding to try to revive the grounded airline, according to a court filing made on Tuesday which was reviewed by Reuters.

Around the globe, parental-leave requirements vary tremendously—consider the requirements of China versus those in India, or the intricate mandates in New Zealand.