Job market on recovery highway: India Inc's Oct-Dec hiring intent at 18-month peak

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New Delhi: India inc's intent to hire in the October-December quarter has reached the highest in the past 18 months, with pandemic jitters giving way to adaptability and new ways of navigating disruption.

The Economic Times citing the latest TeamLease Employment Outlook Report, shared exclusively with it, mentioned that 41% of the surveyed companies intend to hire in this quarter, up from 38% in July-September.

The numbers had nosedived to the lowest last year an average 18% in the two successive quarters to September. The survey covered 650 small, medium and large companies across 21 sectors.

Every slice of data – irrespective of industry sectors, business size, geographical location, job function and organisational hierarchy – shows companies emboldened on hiring as more people get vaccinated, offices chart return-to-work plans, demand picks up and economic activity increases.

“There is an overarching high sense of positivity in the Indian white- and blue-collar job market,” the publication quoted Rituparna Chakraborty, executive vice-president, TeamLease Services as saying. “This optimism is panning out across sectors and job types in urban as well as rural areas. The back-to-office plans of companies are also an indicator that businesses are not worried about any major disruption and even if there is another wave, they claim to be better prepared and more confident to hire for immediate and future growth.”

Chief executives, economists and HR heads told the publication that the shift from a lockdown-based strategy to contain the pandemic to a vaccination-based one — underscored by an acceleration in jabs and coverage — is helping companies to open their hiring funnel.

“The blistering pace of vaccination is helping companies make the call that recovery may be sustainable,” the financial daily quoted Sachchidanand Shukla, chief economist, Mahindra Group as saying. “People are also taking heart from the fact that the number of infections has been mostly under control over the past few weeks.”

Back-to-office and hybrid work plans are also boosting hiring sentiment. Robust economic growth indicators, performance-linked incentive (PLI) schemes for certain industries, a revival in rural sentiment and a sharp bounce-back in contact-intensive services are among positive factors leading to the need for more manpower, said top company officials.