• Average salary hike in India in 2009 will be 8.2% (the highest in the Asia Pacific region hoever first time in six years that India is likely to see single-digit salary increases)
• Projected salary hike is lower than the increase of 13.3% seen in 2008
• The hike higher than China (8%) USA (3.2%) and Japan (2.3%)
• Sectors expected to see the highest raises are FMCG, durables and telecom.
• Healthcare is sector that is doing well globally and in India. In 2008, hospitals had awarded the lowest salary increases but have been placed among the top five sectors for 2009.

With inflation well below 5.5%, an average increase of 8.2% can be considered as a good raise.

To read more about this on Hewitt website – click here

• Employees at the junior manager, professional and supervisor levels are expected to receive the highest increases.
• About 16% of companies in India are considering retrenchments
• More than 60% are still hiring
• Nine out of every 10 companies still giving promotions
• Only 0.83% of companies are resorting to salary cuts

Now compare this to USA – 55% of companies in the US, 30.6% in China, 32% in Australia, 20% in Thailand and 17% in Japan are considering laying off their employees to cut costs in the face of economic recession

How Indian companies are facing recession

• In India, most companies face the downturn by drastically cutting down on luxuries and discretionary expenses such as non-billable travel and entertainment, with greater focus on prudence and productivity with the intent is to avoid layoffs.
• They are redeploying human resources and making largescale realignments to the organization