The October-December 2011 quarter may see a dip in hiring activity across most major cities in India. According to an Employment Outlook Report done by TeamLease, the largest staffing company in India, the employment index for the quarter dipped 3 points and now stands at 71% from the earlier 74%, mainly due to a substantially higher percentage of respondents indicating they would have no change in hiring pattern this coming quarter. Almost proportionately, there was a fall in the numbers of those who indicated they would increase hiring.

Retail & FMCG and manufacturing & engineering sectors show 6-point fall each in business sentiment. The discreet signs a few sectors such as IT and ITeS had exhibited during the last quarter have proved to be contagious for this coming quarter. IT has pressed the panic button with a 7-point drop in employment sentiment and an 8-point drop in business sentiment.

Sliced by cities, the analysis reveals an employment sentiment sink: Delhi and Bangalore witnessed a 9-point drop each in employment outlook index, while Pune dropped 8 points and Chennai 7 points. Others follow closely ? while Kolkata bucked the trend with 5 point rise in employment index, Chennai, Bangalore and Pune bring up the rear with 7, 6 and 5 percentage point drops, respectively, in the business outlook index.

According to the report, the negativity in hiring sentiment paints the geographic patterns red.