Global economic crunch and rising inflation have led to recruiters adopting a cautious stand.
Compared to January last year, hiring sentiments have seen a slight improvement compared between mid-2012 and the beginning of the year. However, on a year-on-year basis, hiring sentiments remained low.
According to a hiring outlook survey released by online jobs portal Naukri.com, 68 per cent of recruiters said new jobs will be created in 2013 compared to 62 per cent in July 2012 and 72 per cent in January 2012.
This apart, the survey has also revealed that while banking and IT sector recruiters had a positive hiring outlook, pharmaceutical and automobile sectors revealed a low hiring outlook.
While the (hiring) indicators are weaker than the position a year back, the positive aspect is that they represent a minor improvement from what could have been a trough (in July 2012) ,” Ambarish Raghuvanshi, Chief Financial Officer, Info Edge India, which operates Naukri.com, said. According to him, improvement in macro-environment and financial markets should lead to increased hiring over the next few months.
Amongst the cities where naukri.com carried out the survey, Hyderabad and Bangalore expressed an optimistic outlook, with 74 per cent and 71 per cent of the respondents stating that new jobs would be created there.
Of the total respondents, 43 per cent recruiters predicted that jobs would be created for the mid-level (4-8 years) category.
Salary Hikes
According to the survey, around 40 per cent of the recruiters said the average pay rise will vary between 10-15 per cent. Another 36 per cent employers maintain that hikes will be in single digits.
Interestingly, the lowest increments were predicted in the banking sector where nearly 60 per cent of the participants said salary hikes will be less than 10 per cent in 2013.
Skill Levels
The survey also shed light on the widening gap between demand and supply for “talented workers.”
Nearly 69 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that the talent crunch has increased over the last few months, with the pharma and auto sectors being hit the hardest, the survey said.
Around 42 per cent recruiters felt that the maximum skill shortage was in the mid levels (4-8 years experience bracket).