'India Inc to be on a hiring spree in coming months'

Riding on the strong domestic demand, corporate India's hiring activity is expected to continue unabated in coming months, HR experts said.

Recruitment service providers, Monster and Naukri.Com, today came out with positive job surveys, indicating bullish hiring activity to continue over the next few months.

Global staffing services firm Manpower, which released its employment outlook for third quarter of 2010 yesterday, said hiring activities in India are expected to reach pre-recession levels in coming months.

"The second half of this year will definitely see more employers increasing their hiring activity. The sharp rise in consumer demand is making the corporate space optimistic about their growth plans and may boost their recruitment plans," Monster Worldwide Managing Director (India, South-East Asia and Middle East) Sanjay Modi told PTI.

Job portal Naukri.Com's senior official said, "Although the level of hiring is not such that could be considered as a job boom, the medium term outlook for the job market appears positive as demand is likely to increase for many roles across industry verticals."

Naukri.Com's monthly Job Speak index grew 29 per cent to 913 points in May as compared to the same month last year with key sectors like IT-Software, banking and auto coming back to pre-downturn levels.

A year on year comparison of the index shows all major cities, industries and functional areas are moving in a positive direction indicating that hiring activity has moved up across all sectors, Naukri.Com report said.

Manpower's report stated that with net employment outlook of 42 per cent, Indian employers report the most optimistic forecast among all 36 countries and territories (surveyed).

"The positive hiring trend in India is primarily due to strong domestic demand," Manpower India's Managing Director Sanjay Pandit said.

Giving similar results, Monster's Employment Index, a monthly gauge of the country's online job demand, lifted seven points to 132 in May from 125 in April, with construction, steel and engineering sectors contributing strongly.

"The continued growth in Monster Employment Index India for the sixth consecutive month is indeed very encouraging. The positive momentum in the index is consistent with other economic indicators," Monster's Modi added.

Naukri.Com's report revealed hiring moved up across all major cities in the country with Pune and Mumbai moving up by 48 per cent and 42 per cent in May, respectively as compared to the year-ago period.