Job market gloom continues: Only 13% firms plan to hire in Q2, shows survey

With India's job market undergoing a transition, only 13 per cent of employers across the country indicate upbeat hiring plans for the next three months, while 61 per cent anticipate no change in their payrolls, a survey said Monday.

According to the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, while 13 per cent of employers expect to increase payrolls, none forecast a decrease, 61 per cent anticipate no change and 26 per cent were unsure about any change in payrolls, resulting in a net employment outlook of 13 per cent.

Hiring intentions marginally declined by four percentage points when compared with the year ago period (July-September quarter of 2018).

"According to ManpowerGroup's survey, India's job market, overall, looks consistent, although it is still going through the transition with a slight slowdown in employment," ManpowerGroup India Associate Director Marketing Cynthia Gokhale said.

Sector-wise, the services sector is expected to drive the third quarter job markets with a net employment outlook of 16 per cent, followed by the mining and construction, wholesale and retail trade and manufacturing sectors with outlooks of 11 per cent.

Gokhale further said that some of the major trends that will drive recruitment in 2019 in India, are diversity, automated recruitment, virtual reality, and remote working options among others.

"Over the last few months, the landscape of the recruitment industry in India has changed. The HR field is also going through an automation revamp," Gokhale said.

In a regional comparison, employers in the southern and western regions lead hiring expectations.

Gokhale further noted that "with more than a million unemployable graduates that the Indian universities are churning out every year and thousands of jobs disappearing each year, India now must prioritise investing in education to bridge the skill gap between the requirements in the market and job seekers skill sets".

ManpowerGroup interviewed over 59,000 employers in 44 countries and territories to forecast labour market activity in the third quarter of 2019, including 4,951 employers in India.

Globally, employers expect workforce gains in 43 of 44 countries and territories surveyed in the period up to the end of September.

In a comparison with the same period last year, hiring intentions strengthen in 12 countries and territories, but weaken in 26 and are unchanged in six, the survey said.

The strongest hiring sentiment is reported in Japan, Croatia, Taiwan, the US, Greece and Slovenia, while the weakest hiring prospects are reported for Hungary, Argentina, Italy and Spain, it added.