A quarterly survey of hiring and firing trends around the world has found that not only have recruitment levels in India increased significantly since September 2009, they are now among the highest in the world.
The ‘Global Snapshot’ from the international recruitment firm, Antal surveyed more than 6000 organisations in 30 countries on whether they were currently hiring and firing at professional and managerial level. It then asked whether they planned to do so in the coming quarter. 71% of Indian companies said that they were currently hiring compared to around half in September. The only country to have a higher rate of hiring was Nigeria.
The survey also showed that Indian organisations plan on increasing their hiring activity even more, with 78% expecting to hire managerial staff over the next three months. Combined with a very low rate of letting people go (16% and set to drop by a further 3%) the results indicate a strong employment market which is improving all the time.
“Confidence is back at its peak in the Indian job markets, its happy days again for job seekers.” says Joseph Devasia, Managing Partner, Antal International, Mumbai. “Manufacturing & auto sectors along with the traditional IT, FMCG, Pharma companies have ramped up hiring, as against what we witnessed in our previous survey. Increased hiring indicates that the need for exceptional talent is now ever more.”
The rest of Asia shows mixed results. China and Pakistan also have high rates of hiring, at 71% and 70% respectively – although whereas China predicts an increase in recruitment activity, Pakistan forecasts a drop of 25%. Around half of companies in the Philippines are currently hiring but recruitment is expected to improve in both countries over the next quarter.
“Although a few countries are still seeing a decline in the employment market, the global picture has definitely improved once again,” says Antal’s CEO, Tony Goodwin. “As we said in September, we are most certainly not ‘out of the woods’ as yet and there may be more unpleasant economic surprises to come but it does seem as if organisations of all sizes are approaching 2010 with more confidence than would have seemed possible in the very dark days of January 2009. As a result we are already seeing the first clear signs of organisations thinking in terms of the ‘war for talent’ once more with more robust businesses making early moves to snap up the best people in their markets before general recovery becomes too apparent.”
