India jobs scene among weakest globally, worst in 8 years

The economy is believed to be out of the woods. But the job market is not showing any sign of improvement.

Indeed, the job employment outlook for the next quarter (July-September) is the worst in eight years, a Manpower Global report said on Tuesday.

According to A G Rao, group managing director, ManpowerGroup India, though employers expect positive hiring activity in all seven industry sectors and all four regions during the quarter, the hiring intentions are weaker compared with the preceding quarter and the year-ago quarter.

According to the report, employers have reported an outlook of +18% for the quarter – a decline of six percentage points quarter on quarter and 28 percentage points year on year.

“Employers have been scaling down their hiring plans in the past few quarters, a development attributed to unfavourable market conditions,” said Rao.

Job prospects in the transportation & utilities and mining & construction sectors have taken a beating, though in the retail and services sector, the employment scenario is expected to improve, said the Manpower report. Region-wise, the job market is expected to pick up in East and South, while in the North and West, the hiring outlook is expected to deteriorate by 16% and 9%, respectively, it said.

Other human resources firms appear to support the Manpower findings, broadly.
Even sectors like Telecom, ITES and FMCG are yet to start hiring, Sunil Goel, director of executive search firm GlobalHunt India, pointed out.

The Naukri Job Speak Index also suggests hiring has turned sluggish. The index, which which keeps track of monthly online hiring trends, fell around 4% to 1,317 in May compared with the previous month.

The hiring conviction is missing, Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO of HeadHunters India, suggested. “Most companies had slowed down on hiring since last year and as a result of the pent-up demand, they have started showing some interest in hiring.” That bodes ill for the year overall, considering the September-December quarter is typically the weakest in terms of new hiring.