GroundReport | India | India tops in job prospects

India tops in job prospects

by Jagan T June 11, 2008

Fears of an economic slowdown at home and a slump worldwide, doesn’t seem to discourage the country’s employers who are looking for workers actively. The US slowdown has not taken the sheen off the Indian job market as India ranks Number one among 32 countries in terms of overall net employment outlook, says a survey conducted by Manpower.

The latest quarterly survey of about 5,636 employers (part of a global sample of 55,000) by multinational human resource firm Manpower Inc says that India’s Net Employment Outlook for the July-September quarter stands at 45 per cent, the highest in the world. Singapore and Peru follow India in the rankings.

The strongest hiring intention is seen in sectors such as the services, finance, insurance, real estate, media and tourism, report reveals. Hiring intentions are weakest in the wholesale and retail trade industry sector and the manufacturing sector where employers have indicated a decline in their hiring plans.

The IT and IT-enabled services sector, which accounts for call centres and back-office services, have the most active hiring outlook, with an increase of 17 points in the July-September period at 59 per cent compared with the same quarter of last year.

Employers in all four zones of the country have shown positive hiring intentions, according to the survey. The strongest outlook is reported by employers in the North (+50 per cent). The weakest is reported in the East (+30 per cent).

The Net Employment Outlook is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating total employment to increase and subtracting from this the percentage expecting to see a decrease in employment at their location in the next quarter.

But the subsequent quarter could be a testing one. “While employers in India continue to show optimism in their hiring intent, the US slowdown has started showing its impact,” Malhan said. “Future trends would be challenging and the October to December quarter would be a testing time largely due to rising crude oil prices.”