India Inc to step up hiring in next 3 months

New Delhi: Employers in India are planning to hire at a robust pace in the next three months. A survey says public administration, education and services sectors are expected to see strong recruitment trends.

Globally, India is the most optimistic in terms of recruitment intentions for the fourth quarter, after China and Taiwan, according to staffing services firm Manpower's

Employment Outlook Survey released on Tuesday.

"The job market remains robust in India as a result of strong domestic growth and recovery from key global markets. But employers in other countries are reporting strong hiring forecasts as well," Manpower India's managing director Sanjay Pandit told PTI.

India's net employment outlook -- an indicator of employers' hiring intentions -- stood at 38 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the next three months. For the third quarter, the outlook stood a little higher at 41 per cent.

The outlook fell slightly for the next three months as recruitment activities are relatively less in this period, mainly on account of festival season, Pandit noted.

For the fourth quarter, China has the highest outlook of 47 per cent and is followed by Taiwan (40 per cent). Interestingly, for the 2010 third quarter, India was the most optimistic when it came to hiring intentions.

Of the total of 36 countries surveyed by Manpower, 28 showed positive hiring trends for the next three months. As many as 5,395 employers in India participated in the survey.

In terms of sectors in India, public administration and education has the highest net employment outlook of 45 per cent, followed by services (40 per cent) and finance, insurance and real estate (34 per cent).

According to the report, transportation and utilities, and wholesale and retail trade sectors, each have an outlook of 22 per cent. "Once you combine strong domestic hiring along with improved international opportunities, we see one of the best scenarios that Indian job-seekers could have imagined," he said.

With an employment outlook of 41 per cent, employers in the South have strong hiring plans for the fourth quarter of this year. Northern region has an outlook of 37 per cent, followed by East (36 per cent) and West (32 per cent).

Going by the survey, the weakest hiring plans for the upcoming quarter were reported from Greece, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain and Ireland.