By Praveen Paramasivam
(Reuters) -India’s TeamLease Services expects revenue to grow up to 22% in the financial year starting April 1, driven by job growth in quick delivery, consumer goods, and manufacturing, a top executive said on Thursday.
Bengaluru-based TeamLease works with more than 3,900 companies across various sectors on hiring, counting Bajaj Finserv, Airtel, Tata Consultancy Services, Goldman Sachs, and Dixon Technologies among its clients.
Manufacturing in India — especially in pharmaceuticals and electronics — has picked up in recent years, as government incentives look to boost domestic production when businesses are already looking to diversify their global supply chains.
At India’s economic growth target of 6.5%, revenue at TeamLease should climb 20%-22% in the ongoing financial year, led by a roughly 15% increase in staffing, CFO Dathi said.
Analysts expect revenue to rise 16% to 129.51 billion rupees ($1.51 billion) for the current financial year, according to data compiled by LSEG. Last financial year, it jumped around 20% to 111.56 billion rupees.
India’s hyperfast-delivery sector, with a workforce of over 400,000 people, is a bright spot for jobs in India, with Swiggy’s Instamart, Eternal’s Blinkit and startup Zepto expanding rapidly.
However, regulatory issues in hiring in the banking, financial services, and insurance sectors and an artificial intelligence-led slowdown in recruitment in the informational technology services industry will put a damper on growth.
“AI is definitely eating into salaries, and now it has started eating into the number of jobs as well,” Dathi said. “For 10 open positions that are getting created because of attrition, only six or seven are getting filled.”
On Wednesday, TeamLease reported a 27% rise in quarterly profit, as demand for recruitment across industries such as consumer and telecommunication helped boost its mainstay general staffing business.
($1 = 85.9580 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
