Indian companies are the eighth most optimistic in the world when it comes to hiring plans
The end of the financial year is a crucial time because of appraisal cycles and hiring plans as companies start planning for the new quarter. In this context, ManpowerGroup, an innovative workforce solutions company, discovered through a survey that India ranks 8th in the world in terms of optimism when it comes to hiring intentions.
Titled the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, it is conducted across 44 countries and territories. In it, ManpowerGroup interviewed over 59,000 employers to forecast labour market activity in the second quarter of 2018.
The question that all participants were asked was, “How do you anticipate total employment at your location to change in the three months to the end of June 2018 as compared to the current quarter?”
When compared with the first quarter’s reports, the quarter two reports show that hiring intentions improved in 17 countries and territories, remained unchanged in nine, and declined in the other 17. Of this list of countries and territories featuring seasonally adjusted data, confidence is strongest in Taiwan, Japan, Hungary, and the United States, when it comes to hiring intention. The weakest hiring prospects are reported in Italy, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland. India ranks eighth on this list.
The report shows that for India, the hiring plans are likely to weaken in comparison to the first quarter of 2018 as well as the same period last year. However, this year, even though the pace of hiring may be slow in the second quarter, fewer staff reductions are expected.
When it comes to reduction in payrolls, of the 4,600 employers surveyed in India, zero percent expressed any expectations of reducing payrolls.
According to AG Rao, Group Managing Director at ManpowerGroup India, the next quarter – April-June – will be a positive period and Indian job seekers will benefit from it. He says, “In the coming times, technology will change the job market dynamics, and individuals need to adopt skill sets to continue to remain employable. The year 2018 will see a sharp increase in demand for professionals with skills in emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning.”
The statement was shared in a press release which also stated that the future of work is going to be defined by new technology, and to be ready to take on the demands of a fast-changing workforce, Rao suggests that “...there is a need for proper skill mapping and identification of the future requirements to build a talent pool for the emerging trends in the job market. It is imperative to impart domain knowledge and relevant skills through teaching methods, pedagogical tools, industry, and alumni interface to the graduates to be successful and productive at the workplace arena.”