Indias hiring mood brightens as it emerges most optimistic job market globally: Survey

ManpowerGroup India and Middle East.

The survey indicates that hiring is increasingly targeted at areas where companies need new capabilities. Among employers planning to add staff, 69% cite changing roles and skills, including expansion into new areas and demand for new expertise driven by advancing technology as reasons for hiring. “Recruitment is also accelerating, with 57% of employers reporting a faster time-to-hire than a year ago, driven largely by the adoption of AI in hiring processes,” Gulati said.

The upbeat sentiment is visible across sectors, with all nine sectors surveyed in India expected to increase staffing in the coming quarter. Finance & insurance and hospitality lead the pack, with NEOs of 60% and 58%, respectively, followed by the information sector at 57%.

Also read: AI is creating more jobs than it destroys in India, but freshers face the squeeze

Hospitality recorded the sharpest quarter-onquarter improvement, at 21 percentage points, while finance & insurance continues to benefit from stronger credit demand and the broader expansion of digital financial activity.

Sachchidanand Shukla, group chief economist at Larsen & Toubro, said the pickup in hiring sentiment reflects a stillresilient domestic demand backdrop, pointing to 7.8% GDP growth, a 12% year-on-year rise in exports and an 18-22% increase in net sales and revenue among listed companies.

With revenue visibility strongest in certain segments, however, companies may increasingly favour selective, productivity-led hiring over broadbased expansion, he said.

“Firms are hiring where revenue visibility is strongest,” Shukla said.

He cautioned, however, that overall bullishness may hold but not uniformly and will depend on domestic demand remaining firm, the interest environment and geopolitical risks remaining manageable.

Employers in organisations with 1,000 to 4,999 employees are the most optimistic, with an NEO of 58%, up eight points from the previous quarter and five points year-on-year.

Compared with the September quarter, employment expectations have risen across all organisation sizes except those with 10-49 employees, where they declined by two points.