Hiring Sentiment Positive In India For September Quarter, Says Survey

A third of businesses in India plan to increase hiring over the three months through September, primarily in the information technology sector, according to a global survey.

Asia's third-largest economy was ranked sixth globally for employment outlook during the next three months, the study by workforce solutions firm ManpowerGroup conducted in 42 nations said. In India, as many as 3,150 employers were asked about their hiring intentions.

India's net employment outlook (calculated by subtracting employers planning reductions versus those planning to hire) stood at 30%, the study said. That's a drop of six percentage points from the previous quarter and lower than the corresponding period a year ago as employers remain cautious. Yet, the metric for India is eight percentage points above the global average.

"The global slowdown has been impacting the IT sector in India for quite a while," Sandeep Gulati, managing director of ManpowerGroup's India and Middle East Branch, said.

"Added to the circumstances, is the political uncertainty looming over the country due to general elections during data collection of this survey," he said. "Clearly, employers are being cautious in their short-term resource planning."

Costa Rica reported the strongest hiring expectation at 35%, followed by Switzerland (34%), Guatemala (32%), Mexico (32%) and South Africa (31%). On the other hand, Argentina and Romania reported the weakest net employment outlook at 3%.

In the Asia Pacific region, India (30%) and China (28%) reported the strongest outlook. Hong Kong and Japan reported the most cautious outlook at 8% and 12%, respectively.

Within the country, hiring intention in North India was the highest at 36%, followed by West India (31%), South India (30%) and East India (21%).

Hiring sentiment across sectors declined when compared to the same period a year ago.

Going by the industry size, large organisations (with 1,000-4,999 employees) indicated strongest optimism in hiring, with net employment outlook of 42% followed by 34% for small (50 -249 employees) and medium (250-999 employees) organisations, and 30% for large enterprises.

Financials, real estate, healthcare and life sciences continue to dominate the market with strongest hiring intentions. On the other hand, communication services and transport, logistics and automotive have the weakest hiring intention, the survey said.

More than 62% of employers have adopted artificial intelligence, including generative conversational AI, with 80% of senior leadership optimistic about the positive impact of AI on overall business, as opposed to 68% of frontline and factory workers.

Contrary to common belief, almost 68% of employers plan to increase headcount due to adoption of AI and Machine Learning over the next two years, led by communication services, financial and real estate, industrials and materials, and information technology sectors.