As the world economy recovers from recessionary times, employment prospects are improving. However, not every industry is expected to recover at the same speed. There are some which offer better and greater job opportunities than others.

The global hiring scenario remains uneven and fragile, although there are encouraging signs of recovery as the world’s advanced economies finally stabilize.  In addition, many emerging and developing countries, which mainly includes the Asia-pacific stretch, Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa are enjoying relatively robust economic growth. These economies are the breeding ground for some of the high-growth industries such as oil & gas, construction and IT amongst others which are responsible for major increase in global hiring activities. However, the overall march towards recovery is slow and therefore, job seekers who are looking for a stable future should keep a watch out for the industries that are currently hottest in the recruitment market.

Information Technology

According to the IT Industry Outlook 2014 report released by CompTIA, the non-profit association for IT, the industry is likely to experience moderate growth in 2014. The report, titled as CompTIA IT Industry Outlook 2014: Positives Outweigh Challenges, reveals a growth rate of 3.4 percent for the global IT industry which can go up to 5.9 percent. No business can deny the important role technology has to play in ensuring an edge over the competition.

Therefore, companies have upped the ante in hiring individuals for many competitive roles. Job seekers with big data, mobile or analytics skills are in high demand.  According to a Glassdoor survey, in the United States, the home to biggest tech names, there are 10,381 employers hiring, which is second only to business services.  The same survey reveals that 45% of the current employees believe that the number of jobs will improve.  Similar sentiments are shared in Indian IT, the world’s leading IT and sourcing destination. Industry experts say the Indian IT workforce will touch 30 million by 2020, becoming the highest sector employer.

Oil and Gas

The Barclay Conference held in 2013 September had four major takeaways. According to James C West, lead oil services and drilling analyst at Barclays, there are tremendous growth opportunities for oil production globally. The outlook for North America in 2014 has improved with more oil companies arranging extensive drilling programs in the next couple of years. Both Southeast Asia and the Middle East are growing very rapidly. NES Global Talent, the technical manpower specialist, in its predictions for 2014 states that oil and gas companies will hire more permanent staff as confidence in the economy grows and competition for local talent continues.    In order to tap in the rising job opportunities in Middle East in this sector, NES Global Talent has recently expanded base here.

Health care

The outlook for the global health care industry over the next few years is quite positive as per a Deloitte report. The total global health spending was expected to increase by 2.6 percent in 2013 which will accelerate to an average of 5.3 percent a year over the next four years. (2014-2017)Emerging markets such as China, India, Mexico, Russia and Indonesia are expected to see spending increase over the next few years. New employment opportunities will follow the investment. As per Glassdoor report, there are currently 5,629 available jobs in the US market in this sector, with 33% of the employer in the field thinking it will improve.   In Indian job market, 40 million new jobs are expected to be generated by 2020 in this industry as per a report by Boston Consulting Group, All India Management Association and the Confederation of Indian Industries.

Retail

The retail industry accounts for over US$15 trillion in global revenue and is expected to maintain strong growth. It is a highly globalized industry with large retailers operating in almost every country. Unlike other sectors, retail industry has seen the most growth in the least developed economies. These economies provide cheap labor and an easy to establish supply chain, and that’s why most new jobs in this industry is in emerging economies. Approximately 142 million people were employed in retail sector in 82 countries, as per the consolidated database ILO LABORSTA database. In United States, the world’s largest retail market, 19 percent of the retail employers expressed positive outlook for 2^nd Quarter 2014. Amongst the emerging economies, India offers great hopes, with projections of the workforce doubling by 2015. The expected worth of this sector is more than $400 billion in India.