Hiring sentiment likely to go up by 30% in Q3CY24: ManpowerGroup Report

The Net Employment Outlook (NEO) of India, during the third quarter of calendar year 2024 (Q3CY24), is likely to go up by 30%, according to a study conducted by ManpowerGroup.

Compared to the last quarter and the third quarter of 2023, the Indian NEO has worsened by 6 points, and the country is 8 points above the global average. The study, conducted across 3,150 employers, further reveals that in India, financial and real estate industries are forerunners in creating employment, followed by healthcare and life sciences.

Commenting on the findings, ManpowerGroup’s India and Middle East Managing Director Sandeep Gulati said, “The global slowdown has been impacting the IT sector in India for quite a while. Added to the circumstances, is the political uncertainty looming over the country due to general elections during data collection of this survey. Employers are being cautious in their short-term resource planning.”

Gulati further added that real estate has seen an increased investor interest with a capital infusion of Rs 8,352 crore, led by the residential segment. “We hope the gap between the demand of specific skills and supply is bridged with strategic long-term talent planning in corporates in India. Hire, train, and deploy is a strategy that can make a difference to mitigate this problem,” he added.

Some of the key findings of the study are:

• Overall, the strongest hiring intention continues in North India (+36%), followed by West (31%), South (+30%), and East (+21%) reporting the least optimistic outlooks. All sectors have, however, declined when compared to the same period last year
• Among the industry size, large organisations with 1,000 to 4,999 head count indicate strongest highest NEO (42%), followed by small and medium organisations (34%) and large enterprises (30%). When compared to the same period last year, there is an overall decrease across industry sizes with no change in the small industries
• Sector-wise, financials and real estate sector, and healthcare and life sciences continue to dominate the market with strongest hiring intentions (39% and 36% respectively). The weakest outlook is indicated in communication services and transport, logistics and automotive (17%)
• More than 62% of employers have adopted AI, including generative conversational AI, with 80% of the senior leadership team optimistic about the positive impact of AI on overall business as opposed to 68% of frontline and factory workers

It is pertinent to note that contrary to common belief, almost 68% of employers plan to increase headcount due to the adoption of AI and machine learning over the next 2 years.