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NT Bureau
Chennai, Sept 5:

        The hiring intentions of Indian companies remained strong with a Net Employment Outlook (NEO) of plus 39 per cent for the third quarter of calendar 2007. This represents a considerable rise over the last quarter by 8 percentage points, but a moderate decrease of 4 per cent over the same quarter of the last year.

        According to a survey by the Manpower Services India Pvt Ltd, provider of HR and placement services to clients, 42 per cent of the 4,925 employers were expecting an increase in hiring activity in the second quarter of 2007, 3 per cent anticipate a decrease, and 42 per cent were expecting no change. The NEO was derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating total employment to increase and subtracting from this the percentage which foresaw a decrease in employment at their location in the next quarter.

        The employment outlook survey for the third quarter of 2007 was conducted by interviewing a representative sample of 4,925 employers in India. The respondents were asked: How do you anticipate total employment at their locations to change in the three months to the end of September 2007 as compared to the last quarter? The survey was conducted in April - May 2007 and reported the hiring intentions of employers for the third quarter (July - September).

        Employers in the southern region have revealed strong hiring intentions for the upcoming quarter with a NEO of plus 44 per cent followed by employers in the West at plus 41 per cent. The employers in the East have expressed a NEO of plus 37 per cent, while those in the North were least optimistic with a NEO of plus 33 per cent. Of the 1,491 employers surveyed in South, 47 per cent felt there would be an increase in the hiring tendencies and only 3 per cent felt there would be a decrease, 39 per cent of the employers felt there would be no change in the hiring intentions, while 11 per cent were unsure about their hiring plans.

        For the ninth consecutive quarter, employers across all seven industry verticals — finance and real estate, manufacturing, mining and construction, public administration and education, services, transport and utilities, wholesale and retail trade — in India had reported positive hiring intentions. The strongest NEO was observed among employers in the services (plus 46 per cent), while the weakest was seen among employers in the public administration and education (plus 27 per cent).

        Manpower Services India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Manpower Inc, has 500 consultants in 24 offices across 15 cities in the country. The hiring company offered a range of HR services and solutions to clients, including permanent recruitment, temporary and contract staffing, managed services and outsourcing.

        Each quarter, Manpower published its Employment Outlook Survey that forecast employers' hiring intentions for the next quarter which has become a reliable study on the prevailing sentiments in the Indian labour market. As part of its social projects, Manpower India has invested $one million towards building and operating vocational training centres for tsunami victims in Nagapattinam district of Tamilnadu.