Entry and junior level hiring are likely to witness a decline in the second half of this fiscal as employers are looking to hire “productive workforce”, according to a report by TeamLease Services.

Employers are hiring reactively (just-in-time) when there are projects as employment intentions lag business sentiment, and this leaves little scope for training and orientation, the report said.

Further, hiring activities in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities are expected to slow down in the coming half year, TeamLease Services’ Employment and Business Outlook Report for the half-year period (October 2013 to March 2014) said.

“The next few quarters will be interesting to watch due to the mixed signals emanating from various sources,” TeamLease Services Senior Vice-President and Co-Founder Sangeeta Lala said.

Lala further added that “while businesses seem positive, hiring is not keeping pace though the requirement for good talent is always there. Various industries too are bearing the brunt of the slowdown, and how well they realign themselves to the ground realities will determine the future.”

The report also said the businesses that are sensitive to the political-economic fallout, due to upcoming elections, have gone more slow on hiring.

Talent market

Engineers continue to be the toast of the talent market. They are the only profiles that are being hired — albeit, in small numbers — from a few locations, it said.

Allahabad, Bareilly, Ludhiana, Ranchi and Warangal are the towns where employers are hiring good engineering talents at relatively lower cost compared to Tier-1 cities.

Middle-level positions

Experience and skills are a big hit for employers as in the coming half-year, middle-level positions steal the limelight — a trend witnessed in the previous half year.

City wise, Ahmedabad and Bangalore lead a charge of positive growth in both employment and business outlook indices. Pune loses badly as the employment and business sentiments go down, while the other laggards include Chennai and Kolkata.

The survey covered 614 companies in the latest round, focusing on the employment growth potential, the business outlook and hiring forecast with regard to location and company profile.

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