CORPORATE India is likely to witness a slowdown in hiring activity in the last quarter of this year, owing to the ongoing global economic uncertainty, but the decline is only temporary.

Employment Outlook Report, there has been a dip of 3 points in the stood at 71 for the October-December quarter against from 74 in the previous quarter.

Despite economic uncertainty looming globally, we are confident of the India growth story. Though the employment index has witnessed a dip, we are hopeful that dip is only temporary.

From sectoral perspective, too, six out of the eight sectors reported negative growth in the index, with the tech industry bearing the brunt.

The IT sector witnessed 6 points decline followed by engineering (4 points). Sales, marketing and customer service keeps its top position at 79 points despite a 3 points fall.

There is a 2 points drop across all other functional areas. All the sectors are growing, though at a slower rate, and hence employees want to hold on to their jobs preferring stability.

The survey further said junior and mid-level hiring are projected to be down 4 points each, for entry-levels there would be a 2 points loss, while senior profiles are well protected in their niche, which sees a single point drop to a stable 24 points.

A city wise analysis shows that Delhi and Bangalore each has witnessed a 9 point drop in employment sentiment, wile pune witnessed a 8 points drop and channai 7 points fall.
Interestingly, for Kolkata the employment index rose by 5 points.

The net business outlook also fell by three percentage points to 72 per cent for the October-December 2011 quarter.

However, the drop in sector indices for business outlook is by a lesser margin compared with the employment index. The study, covering 620 companies in the latest round, focuses on employment growth potential, the business outlook and hiring forecasts with relation to the location and the company profile.