Employers in India have reported the weakest hiring outlook in the Asia Pacific region in the past eight years, according to Manpower Employment Outlook Survey for the third quarter (July-September) for 2013.

Hiring prospects (in India) declined by 4 percentage points when compared with the previous quarter and the outlook is 27 percentage points weaker year-over-year, said the survey released recently.

Overall, Indian employers indicated ‘solid’ hiring in the third quarter of 2013. But, compared with the same period in 2012, all four regions reported weaker hiring prospects, with the outlook showing a steep decline in East and West India by 57 and 34 percentage points, respectively.

“A sharp decline of 22 percentage points is reported in the North and the outlook for the South weakens by 11 percentage points” said the survey.

Of the 5,265 respondent employers in India 26 per cent expected to increase staff strength, while 54 per cent anticipated no change.

Quarter-on-quarter, employers indicated weaker hiring intentions in seven industry sectors, with the “most noteworthy” decline of 15 and 11 percentage points reported in the transportation & utilities sector and the mining & construction sector, respectively.

The survey found a decrease of 9 percentage points in hiring outlook for the finance, insurance & real estate sector, while the wholesale & retail trade sector employers reported a 7 percentage point decline.

Globally, too, there are few signs of a hiring surge in July-September, according to the hiring confidence index released by the Manpower Group.

“According to the more than 65,000 hiring managers surveyed for the quarterly research, hiring activity is expected to slow in 26 of the 42 countries and territories in comparison to July-September of 2012”, the report said, adding that the situation was the worst in Europe, West Asia and Africa  region, where employers report negative hiring intentions.

Sluggish hiring activities in May

In signs of sluggishness in the labour market, hiring activities declined in May as employers remained cautious tracking macro economic conditions, says a report.

Recruitment activities declined in sectors such as IT-software, construction and engineering, insurance, oil and gas, in May, according to job portal Naukri.com.

The Naukri Job Speak Index, which keeps a track of monthly online hiring trends, fell around four per cent to 1,317 in May compared to the previous month. In April, the same was at 1,368.

”Employers seem to be following a cautious approach now and are keeping a close watch on the macroeconomic environment.

“Given the weak economic environment in 2012-13, any job creation is a positive sign. From this point onwards, job creation will track macro-economic indicators,” Info Edge (India) CFO Ambarish Raghuvanshi said in a statement today.

Naukri.com is part of Info Edge group.

Among the cities, only Delhi-NCR saw an uptick in recruitment trends last month as against April. Other places including Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata witnessed decline in hiring activities.

On the other hand, the index reading in May 2013 jumped over 10 per cent compared to 1,194 recorded in the same period a year ago.

“A holistic view over the year shows us that jobs continue to be created as there is a 10% upswing in hiring year-on-year,” Raghuvanshi said.

aditi.n@thehindu.co.in

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