Here’s some good news for staff on temporary contracts – the compensation parity between them and permanent employees is closing in. Does that make permanent employees insecure? It should if their role is noncritical to the organization. Edited excerpts from the 2013 TeamLease salary survey

With industries such as hospitality and BPO / ITeS and prominent profiles such as project lead (IT and knowledge services) and autoCAD engineer (automobile and allied industries) displaying unified salaries with variance in mostly low single digits, the temp versus perm distinction on salary payouts is relegated to the past.

Despite lower economic growth and not so buoyant mood in the market, TeamLease predicts that not only will hiring increase, salaries too will see an upward movement across most industries. While the hiring has registered 11% growth, salaries will witness 12% increase across industries and functions.

Further, with companies striking a balance between skills and increment, attrition rate also has been brought under control, emphasizing a buoyant and mature job market. From a sectoral perspective, most of the sectors register a healthy growth in increments. In fact, even the BFSI sector which had a relatively poor increment scheme last year seems to be on a course correction and will be rewarding skilled talent accordingly. And finally, the gap between permanent salaries and temporary salaries is now negligible. Excerpts from the survey:

The year saw frenetic talent acquisition activity – near-11% increase over the previous year – and equally aggressive retention initiatives that raised increment payouts to an average 12% across industries and functions. The focus is on securing valuable skills through measured and commensurate pay actions.

Automobile and Allied Industries which almost does a catch up (17.6% rate of growth as against the IT and Knowledge Services’ 18.2%). Automobile and Allied Industries perform better on increment payouts, however, alongside Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals. FMCG and Power and Energy tie for the second spot with substantial increment growth rates with only the latter gaining improvements on longevity.

Specialization wins big on both salary and increment payouts. Niche, and high-skilled profiles such as Network Architect, SAP Developer/ Consultant and Project Lead are in greater demand than the generalized and traditionally well-paid profiles such as IT Executive / IT Manager and Accountant. The ‘niche-set’ pockets salary and increment growth rates upwards of 12% and are toasted by most industries that employ them. Attrition rates stabilize across industry 11 out of 15 industries.

Ms. Sangeeta Lala, Sr. V-P & Co-founder TeamLease Services is buoyant. “The headwinds of global change, blowing hot and cold have only so much as reshaped the contours of the Indian labor markets for the better. Salaries continue to rise – more for the deserving, employers are aggressively acquiring and rewarding the right skills and capabilities, talent migration is shaped by career enrichment opportunity as much as it is by market forces, and equity has prevailed.”