DNA - Money
December 13, 2006

NEW DELHI: Employers in India are positive about hiring more people in the first quarter of 2007, but they are not as enthusiastic as they were three months ago.

Bullish hiring lies ahead for India, but mainly in mining and construction, which may be less attractive for most professionals. Hiring intentions in high-paying sectors like financial services, insurance, and real estate seem to have ebbed, according to the employment outlook survey brought out by Manpower India on Tuesday.

But on a global scale, hiring intentions continue to be strong in India among the 27 countries and territories surveyed by Manpower Inc this quarter.

The ‘net employment outlook’ —– a measure devised in the survey — has declined three percentage points from last quarter to 39 per cent in India.

What does this imply? “Hiring intentions are slightly more cautious than in the earlier quarter, but remain strong,” said Manpower India executive chairman Soumen Basu.

“Although the survey shows significant hiring activity across all industry sectors, the mining and construction sector employers report the strongest hiring intentions, thus emphasising the importance of skilled labour in this domain,” Basu said.

The picture that emerges is not that rosy: “Despite upbeat reports from the government, which say that at least 10 million people will be recruited next year with the same trend following for the next five years, only those candidates who possess certain skills and fulfil the industry requirement will be able to land jobs,” said Nirupama VG, associate director, TeamLease Services, which is India’s largest staffing group.

Of the 4,742 employers surveyed, 41 per cent expect an increase in hiring activity in the first quarter of 2007, 2 per cent anticipate a decrease, and 50 per cent expect no change. The ‘net employment outlook’ is derived by subtracting the percentage of employers who expect a decrease in their hiring in the next quarter from the percentage of employers anticipating total employment to increase.

In the mining and construction sector (44 per cent), the outlook has improved by five percentage points. But the outlook in the services sector has decreased a little from last quarter to 43 per cent.

The finance, insurance, and real estate sectors have shown a significant fall of 11 percentage points in hiring intentions with a reported net employment outlook of 39 per cent.