Hiring in July-September expected to be stable in Q3, says ManpowerGroup survey

The hiring outlook is expected to be more or less stable in July to September 2021 period with a Net Employment Outlook of +7 percent, said the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey.

It added that the sectors expected to drive the third-quarter (2021) job market include transportation & utilities. The services sector continues to drive the job market for the second quarter, consecutively.

The weakest labour market is expected in the mining & construction sector where the Outlook is -2 percent.

Net Employment Outlook is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating total employment to increase and subtracting from this the percentage expecting to see a decrease in employment at their location in the next quarter.

The strongest hiring pace is recorded in the medium sized organizations followed by the large sized organizations with a seasonally adjusted outlook of +8 percent and +6 percent respectively. From a region perspective, North and South indicate similar outlook at +6 percent.

Sandeep Gulati, Group Managing Director of ManpowerGroup India said that while the second wave of the pandemic has been ruthless, the country has shown buoyancy and determination to recover by maintaining the momentum of its economic activities.

"The demand for skilled workforce has been stable since the beginning of the year. Demand for sales, service and Delivery personnel is on the rise as consumer confidence is returning owing to the vaccination drive," he added.

ManpowerGroup further extended its survey to include the impact of COVID-19. It showed that 46 percent of respondents said that did not know when they were likely to resume regular hiring. Only 3 percent reported not expecting to go back to pre-pandemic levels of hiring.

Some of the concern for most organizations surveyed about remote working revolved around worker wellbeing, company culture, productivity, and innovation. The biggest concern, with 51 percent, was whether their employees will be able to collaborate efficiently.