Companies go slow on hiring amid economic gloom, uncertain outlook

India Inc is going slow on hiring due to the domestic economic gloom and uncertain global outlook. "There is selective hiring across most sectors now. The next few months will be challenging for the overall recruitment market in India," said Hitesh Oberoi, managing director and chief executive officer, Info Edge India.

According to Naukri.com, most sectors have started feeling the pinch of the slowdown with construction, ITES, oil and gas, and insurance witnessing a 17 per cent, 10 per cent, eight per cent and six per cent dip respectively in hiring levels in June this fiscal compared to the same period a year ago.

"We can't say companies are not hiring but certainly employers are cautious. Even though they do not plan to cut jobs, they are going slow on hiring, and not increasing salaries and giving additional work to current staff," a human resources executive from IT giant Wipro told Mail Today.

According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the IT sector has set a target to hire around 2 lakh people in 2012. However, firms have deferred campus recruitment from June to September.

The fluctuating rupee and slashing of export orders are cutting into profit margins of many IT companies which expect further slowdown in their revenue earnings. Nasscom has predicted a growth rate of 11-14 per cent for the industry in FY13 compared with a projected 16.3 per cent in FY'2 on account of lower spending by US companies, the debt crisis in Europe and weakening rupee.

The slowdown is evident from last week's quarterly results of Infosys, which hired 9,236 people as against 10,676 in the last quarter and 9,922 a year ago. As a whopping 8,079 employees left the firm during the June quarter as against 5,770 in the fourth quarter and 7,182 year ago, the net addition declined to 1,157 from 4,906 in last quarter and 2,740 a year ago.

Infosys staff cite poor hike as the reason for the high attrition numbers. "The hike was much below expectations. Certainly, people are keen on leaving the company. The industry will see higher level of attrition once the job market is robust again," an executive with Infosys said. The senior management of Infosys has also confirmed that even though they will stick to their hiring targets this year, there will be no pay hikes for executives. "We are going to hire 35,000 people. However, there will be no wage revision as of now. We will revisit the decision to give wage hikes if any in October," S.D. Shibulal, chief executive officer, Infosys, said last week.

According to the industry figures, business process outsourcing and project management saw hiring levels dip in June this year against the same period last year. Even auto and the heavy machinery sectors, which were upbeat in hiring, have slashed recruitments.

"Employers are cautious. Though there has been no change as far as permanent employees are concerned, we are cutting on temporary workers. The reason is since companies are going for production cut, we do not want so many temporary staff," a senior manager at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd said.

Courtesy: Mail Today