India Inc bullish about business; cautious on hiring

According to the TeamLease employment outlook report for October–December 2010, the business outlook has increased, but still companies are playing the hiring game safely.

For the said quarter the employment outlook moved up by 4 per cent to 68 per cent, while, business outlook grew 10 per cent to 71 per cent. "We witness a shift in hiring intent; while earlier the business sentiment and hiring sentiment were moving hand in hand, this quarter shows the business sentiment improving but hiring intent lagging behind marginally," TeamLease Services Pvt Ltd VP Sangeeta Lala said.

Lala further added that "this development implies that employers are cautious while hiring and giving importance to productivity and efficiency." Meanwhile, attrition levels have increased marginally across geography and business sectors.

"All in all, therefore, the consolidation could also mean a relatively better supply-demand scenario in the employment market," the report said. Even though metro cities continue their dominance in the hiring landscape, the tier-II and tier–III cities have moved up a notch in the hiring intent.

Mumbai (with 7 per cent points) is the only one with a significant improvement in the index value. The report further said that the hiring at the entry levels continue to be positive in comparison to mid-level positions, which seem to be losing their sheen.

Entry Level hires witnessed a 9 per cent point increase, while, middle level positions saw a drop of 5 per cent points. A sectorwise analysis shows that retail & FMCG are the only sector with a significant improvement in the net employment outlook index (8 per cent points) during the present quarter even as there is a significant drop in the index (6 per cent points) for ITeS.

The survey was conducted with HR managers and senior management of 624 leading companies in India.