New Delhi: An employment outlook report released Wednesday has found that the intent to hire in India in the coming months will be stronger as compared to the previous quarter of the financial year 2021-22 and that the new Covid-19 variant Omicron will not have an adverse effect on it.
The report prepared by TeamLease — one of the largest staffing firms in the country — compared hiring trends in Q3 with Q4, and is based on responses of 829 employers in India and 89 abroad.
The report says the hiring intent in Q4 will be at 50 percentage points, which is 9 percentage points more than in Q3.
“The looming threat of the Omicron variant needs to be considered as a risk factor for the hiring intent but we think that the impact would be controllable,” it adds.
“For most organisations, it’s going to be business as usual unless things change drastically. The economic recovery continues unabated, controlled inflation and improved capacity utilisation is expected to counter supply disruptions caused by the pandemic and its variants. This is also likely to fuel private investments and further boost job creation,” it says.
As long as people continue to vaccinate, wear masks, sanitise and maintain social distance, the report adds, “we can continue the return to near-normal cautiously”.
The report also says that while “return to office” plans might be unpredictable, the business impact of the virus “isn’t a big concern as of now”.
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K-shaped recovery
The report predicts a K-shaped recovery for the employment sector. A K-shaped recovery occurs when certain segments of the economy start to climb back upward while the others stagnate.
“A stable GDP forecast (8.5%) for 2022 has spread considerable optimism across sectors, recovering at significantly different rates resulting in a K-shaped recovery,” the report says.
According to the report, the top sectors with high intent to hire will be IT, education services, healthcare & pharmaceuticals and e-commerce & tech start-ups.
In all the sectors, Bengaluru and Chennai are among the top cities looking to hire, it adds.
Junior and entry-level hiring intent “outpaces” other categories because the businesses are looking to “optimise” their costs, the report has found.
At the same time, it also adds that “middle managers and expertise-driven, specialised roles are in considerable demand in a period characterised by speedy change and the need for sustainable growth”.
(Edited by Neha Mahajan)
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