The Employment Outlook Survey by Manpower Group showed that the net employment outlook (NEO) was the strongest for India, at 36%. NEO is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating an increase in hiring activity and subtracting from this the percentage of employers that expect to see a decrease in employment at their location in the next quarter, the survey explained. Next on the list were the US with 34%, and China, Costa Rica and the Netherlands with 32% each. The global average NEO was 22%.
The survey, which covered 3,150 employers in 42 countries, showed that India’s NEO was up by 6% from the previous year. This was despite the fact the organisations reported challenges to active hiring plans. The outlook also adjusted for seasonal fluctuations in hiring.
Globally, about half of the people surveyed expressed positive intent in hiring and one-third of them reported no change. This meant that 14% expected a hiring decrease, the net outlook was at the 36% level. This compares strongly with the global average of 22% for the upcoming quarter from the survey.
In terms of hiring expectations by size of companies, the larger companies were at the higher end of the employment outlook. The lowest net employment outlook was from micro companies that had less than 10 employees; the highest was from large and very large companies where employee strength ranged between 250 and over 4,999.
Interestingly, 86% of companies said that flexible working has helped them to retain talent and helped them expand their candidate pool to be more diverse.Sectoral outlook
Sector-wise, healthcare and life sciences showed the strongest hiring intentions (44%), followed by communication services (43%) and information technology (41%). The weakest outlook was in energy and utilities (+20%).
“Industries in healthcare, life sciences and renewable energy are seeing rapid growth rates with the aid and support of government initiatives,” said Sandeep Gulati, India and Middle East Managing Director of ManpowerGroup, on the sectoral differences in hiring outlook.Some sectors faced more difficulty in finding skilled talent. For example, 73% of communication services’ organisations highlighted this gap. Similarly, 80% of consumer goods and services employers reported this issue; the figure was 72% for energy and utilities, 72% for financials and real estate, 79% for both healthcare & life sciences and industrials.
Given the rapid shifts in the technology sector — which has been in the news more for transformations and layoffs — the skilled talent shortage was reported at 76%.
In India, the hiring outlook was strongest in the northern part of the country. Marginal dips were seen in the other regions for the upcoming quarter.