Companies in India will hire fewer people in the September quarter than June’s, although last month’s election results are giving business confidence a boost, global staffing services firm Manpower said.
A survey of 4,459 employers, released by the firm on Tuesday, showed hiring intentions fell back to March quarter levels, when they were at a three-and-a-half year low.
But much of the survey was conducted before the unexpectedly strong performance of the Congress in the Lok Sabha election, and so did not capture the subsequent boost to business sentiment, said Naresh Malhan, managing director for Manpower in India.
“We would really think that we must have bottomed out and what is happening is to go on the upswing now. This positive intent will multiply in more employment opportunities,” he said.
Companies had not expected things will improve to the point where they would need to hire more staff, he said.
The net employment outlook index was at a seasonally adjusted 19% for July-September, down from 25% in April-June. It was down 24 percentage points from a year earlier.
The outlook is based on the difference between those who plan to add jobs and those who expect to cut them.
Globally, Manpower said, hiring prospects are stable in China, UK and Japan, while it was unchanged in the US and down in France and Germany.
In India, the public administration and education sectors are surging ahead with 33% employers intending to hire in July-September 2009.
Not surprisingly, Divya Kumar (name changed), a software professional, felt more confident about her decision to quit her job with a top-ranking IT company in Bangalore and become a franchisee for a pre-school chain in the Silicon city.
The 30-year-old was looking for a stable career as she had seen the hiring and firing in the IT world, and thought the education is cushioned against the perils of slowdown.
“Education is a recession-proof sector and thus slowdown or not, career opportunities will be always be on an upswing. I can easily get a minimum Rs35,000 per month through franchising, which is only slightly less than what I get in the IT world,” Kumar
told DNA.
Cherian Kuruvila, director, operations, Manpower India, believed the job scenario in the country was gradually improving.
“From 25% employers intending to hire in the last quarter, only 19% are intending to add to employee count this time. But nevertheless, with the improvement in the economic situation, these figures will also improve.”
The survey further said that against the 33% positive hiring intention in education/public administration, once lucrative sectors like finance/insurance/realty (showing only 11% positive hiring intention), services, which includes IT (15%), transportation and utilities (18%), are nearly sinking.
Others like manufacturing/mining/construction and wholesale and retail trade reflect a 21% hiring intention for the coming quarter.
VP Kamath, CEO, Apollo Hospitals, Mumbai, expects a hiring boom in areas such as clinical research, health insurance and bioinformatics.
“There will be a 10-15% increase in job opportunities,” said Kamath.R Ventakesh, executive vice president and head — human capital at Development Credit Bank, said the small and medium enterprises segment, retail, and corporate lending sectors in the banking segment will see a moderate growth of 15-25% this year.
“Though no estimate can be given on the number of jobs that will be created, it will be congruent to the growth that we experience. We will give first opportunity for new projects to existing people, rather than hire from outside,” says Ventakesh
The last few months have seen positive business growth and the signing of new order, said Prameel Kalive, global head — human resources, Zensar Technologies.
“We are looking at adding 500 to 600 people by March 2010.As attrition has dropped from 18% to 10%, hiring mostly will be as per requirements and not the replacement hiring that would happen before.” —With Reuters inputs
Sector% of employers intending to hire in July-Sept
Public administration/education 33%
Manufacturing/mining/construction 21%
Wholesale and retail trade 21%
Transportation and utilities 18%
Services (IT/BPO) 15%
Finance/insurance/real estate 11%
Source-Manpower Employment Outlook Survey for the quarter July-Sept 2009, across 4459 employers in three weeks
Countries % of employers intending to hire in July-Sept
India 19%
Norway 15%
Poland 9%
China 3%
US -2%
UK -6%
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