Good news! Indian job market looks up

Amid uncertainty and global gloom, there is good news round the corner as the job market in India is showing substantive signs of recovery with the current hiring level soaring to as much as 47 per cent, a study says.

"After a substantial dip in hiring levels at the start of 2009, confidence seems to be returning," global management and professional recruitment services firm Antal International said adding that the professional jobs market in India has made a substantive recovery after a major loss of confidence at the start of 2009.

"Current hiring levels (for India) are up to 47 per cent from 29 per cent in the last report," Antal International said in its report titled Global Snapshot.

Text: PTI

"The period of panic and unilluminated gloom does finally seem to be behind us. Recovery may still be a good way off, but it could be that we are now better prepared to pave the way to it than we have been for quite some time," Antal's CEO Tony Goodwin said.

In India 47 per cent of respondents said that they are currently hiring at managerial or professional level.

Around 48 per cent said that they expect to hire at the managerial level in the coming quarter.

Meanwhile, 37 per cent are currently letting people go at managerial level, while, 32 per cent expect to let go people at the professional level in the coming quarter.

Antal International's Global Snapshot is a quarterly survey of hiring and firing trends in some of the world's most important employment markets. The latest survey covered HR managers in 4,217 companies, professional partnerships and financial institutions across 32 countries in April 2009.

The global picture is also showing some signs of recovery as 46 per cent respondents said they are currently hiring at managerial level, 44 per cent expect to hire over the coming quarter, while only 33 per cent are currently letting people go at managerial level and 35 per cent expect to let go people in the coming quarter.

The report further said that whilst the percentage of organisations hiring in the 32 countries surveyed has gone down, from 54 per cent to 46 per cent, it has not plummeted in the way that the economic statistics have.

Besides, the percentage of organisations expecting to hire managers or professionals in the coming quarter has actually risen, albeit by a very modest 1 per cent from 43 per cent at the beginning of the year to 44 per cent now.

The signs of recovery in the job market is remarkably visible in Asia as 46 per cent of businesses said they are currently recruiting, for Pakistan it was as much as 76 per cent, Philippines (49 per cent) and Singapore (52 per cent).

Meanwhile, in Brazil 53 per cent of those surveyed said they are currently recruiting people at the managerial level, in Canada it was 49 per cent and in the United States of America it was 43 per cent.