Overview

• Genius HRTech’s R P Yadav warns that 200,000–300,000 jobs could be at risk if tariffs persist beyond six months, with textiles alone facing potential losses of about 100,000 positions.
• Labour-intensive export sectors and their MSME supply chains—textiles, gems and jewellery, auto components, leather, footwear, shrimp and engineering goods—are deemed most vulnerable to the levies.
• TeamLease Services’ Balasubramanian Anantha Narayanan says India’s USD 87 billion in U.S. exports represents just 2.2 percent of GDP and that strong domestic demand plus recent trade pacts should limit broad employment fallout.
• CIEL HR’s Aditya Mishra reports exporters have already streamlined production, frozen hiring and cut discretionary spending, placing immediate pressure on temporary and contract roles.
• Tariffs are set to take effect later this month but ongoing negotiations, sectoral exemptions and WTO challenges mean uncertainty is expected to persist through the third quarter of the financial year.