Bengaluru has emerged as the top city as far as hiring trends are concerned for the October-December quarter with 67% of employers in the city expressing intent-to-hire during this period. Hyderabad came in the third position with 53% of employers showing intent-to-hire, while Delhi was in the second spot with 59%. In fact, Bengaluru has led in hiring sentiments for four straight quarters. This has been revealed in the Employment Outlook Report for Q3 released by HR staffing solutions firm TeamLease. The survey covered 650 small, medium, and large companies across 14 cities and 21 sectors in India.
As per the report, there is a 3% point growth in the overall intent-to-hire in the current quarter, and the biggest gainer of this positive sentiment is in sales, thanks to rapidly improving consumer sentiment. More than 58% of employers from across the sector are keen to hire talent for sales roles. The report points out that of the 21 sectors reviewed, around 15 have indicated positive hiring sentiment. The leading sectors are Information Technology (69%), Educational Services (64%), and Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals (51%).
The report further said there is sustained demand in hiring for IT roles. This is due to many companies harnessing the potential of online business delivery and meeting the needs of remote and hybrid work. Specialised Engineering roles (Software Engineer, Data Engineer, Full Stack Engineer, Cybersecurity Engineers, Quality Assurance Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Testing Engineer, Automation Test Analyst, Technical Project Manager and Aerospace Engineer) continue to be in high demand, and the trend is riding the wave of new product development and innovation.
With a hiring intent as high as 56% point and a 7% point growth, metros and tier 1 cities seem to be dominating the hiring intent from a geographical perspective. Though not as high as metros and tier 1 cities, even tier 2, tier 3 and rural areas are on the positive trajectory, the report notes.
The report states that a near-10% growth in GDP in the current fiscal coupled with fewer supply disruptions, opening up of pent-up demand both “in the traditional and contact-intensive services, as well as buoyancy in the global economy is having a positive impact on hiring”. The hiring intent in general across different business sizes is on a positive trajectory. However, with more than 50% of the employers indicating positive intent to hire and a growth rate of 6% point, large businesses are on an overdrive.
According to the report, the Indian economy’s continued growth – and therefore sustained job creation – depends upon the ability of the country to prevent more variants of the virus from taking root and grappling with the endemic nature of the pandemic that has set in. “With the sole exception of Kerala, more states are effectively containing the pandemic and ramping up inoculation to record levels contributed to a boost in employer sentiment – especially in the metro/tier-1 cities. Tier-2 and tier-3 cities witness a relatively gradual improvement in the hiring intent as employers in the bigger cities contemplate return to work and hybrid work models,” it adds.
Hiring intent for entry-level positions outpaces other categories of job level due to the emerging possibilities of returning to the workplace and of hybrid work. Having put business operations in place and with steadily increased pace, businesses are looking to optimise costs with fresher hiring. The hiring intent for senior levels is approaching a plateau with most organisations achieving steady states, and focus shifting to modes of operation rather than business transformation, the report says.
Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President, TeamLease Services, said, “Robust GST & e-way bill generation, recovery of the manufacturing PMI, increasing in business activities, improvement in the industrial and service sector activity, rise in demand across sectors and the ramping up inoculation are not only positively impacting the economy but also the job scenario. There is a 5% quarter-on-quarter growth in the hiring sentiment since January, 2021, indicating that the recovery is on the right track and we would need only fast-tracking to offset the impact of the pandemic.”