Hiring momentum is expected to remain stable in the September quarter even as a large section of employers is unsure when regular hiring will resume, a survey has found.
The survey of over 1,300 Indian employers, undertaken by ManpowerGroup India, found that 46% did not know when they were likely to resume regular hiring, while 54% said they would hire by June. However, only 3% reported not expecting to go back to pre-pandemic levels of hiring.
Sectors that will lead the job market are likely to be transportation and utilities, followed by the services sector. The strongest labour market was forecast by transportation and utilities sector employers with a growth of 10%, while services sector employers expected a fair hiring pace, reporting an outlook of 7% growth. However, mining and construction sector employers expected to trim payrolls, reporting an outlook of a decline of 2%.
Hiring intentions weakened in four of the seven industry sectors when compared with the previous quarter. In the finance, insurance and real estate sector and the public administration and education sector, outlooks declined by four percentage points, while services sector employers reported a decrease of two percentage points.
The strongest hiring pace was recorded in medium-sized organisations, followed by large enterprises with a seasonally adjusted outlook of 8% and 6%, respectively. From a regional perspective, north and south indicated similar outlook at over 6%. Hiring prospects weakened by four percentage points in the west, and remained stable in the east.
Interestingly, 78% of employers said they expected their workforce to either work remotely full-time or adopt flexible or condensed working hours. According to the survey, 40% of survey respondents expected to have their workforce work from home full-time, while 38% of the respondents wanted to have either flexible or condensed work hours for their employees.
Sandeep Gulati, group managing director, ManpowerGroup India, said, “The demand for skilled workforce has been stable since the beginning of the year. Demand for sales, service and delivery personnel is on the rise as consumer confidence is returning owing to the vaccination drive.”
