The overall sluggishness in economic growth has begun to reflect in the job outlook being given out by companies from various sectors.
The overall sluggishness in economic growth has begun to reflect in the job outlook being given out by companies from various sectors.
If the Net Employment Outlook Index of the leading staffing firm TeamLease for the October-December is anything to go by then companies are looking to slash or maintain hiring in the current quarter due to bleak business sentiment in the local and overseas markets.
The index, which is the difference in the proportion of respondents suggesting rise in hiring and those pointing to decline, has slipped 3 points to 71 in current quarter compared to 74 in the last quarter. It was, however, 2 points above the March quarter’s 69 points.
What this implies is companies are not confident of increasing their hiring in the October to December period.
It also means many of them would not change their hiring pattern. These sentiments among employers have pulled down the index.
Among cities, Delhi and Bangalore saw the biggest drop in the hiring outlook by 9 points. Delhi’s index slipped from 70 points last quarter to 61 points this quarter while Bangalore’s was down to 79 from 88 during the same period. Other cities that have reduced hiring outlook are Mumbai (-5), Chennai (-7), Pune (-8) and Ahmedabad (-5). Kolkata (+5) is the only major city, which has given a positive outlook while Hyderabad’s has remained unchanged.
Among the industries, information technology (IT) and ITeS have shown the sharpest decline of 7 and 8 points respectively followed by telecom, which dipped 6 points.
In a disturbing trend, six out of eight sectors reported negative employment outlook with financial services (+2) and infrastructure (+2) remaining in the positive zone. Hiring projections for retail & FMCG and manufacturing and engineering sectors dropped by 2 points while health care and pharma went down 3 points.
E Balaji, CEO and managing director of HR consultancy firm Ma Foi, said there has been a slowdown in hiring activities because of macroeconomic concerns, but it was not as dramatic as TeamLease survey had portrayed.
He said the pronounced plunge in the IT-ITeS sector was not surprising as they were dependent on Western markets like the US and Europe. Explaining the sharp dip in the telecom sector’s hiring outlook, he said it could possibly be because of cost adjustments being resorted to by operators to improve profitability.
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