77% service sector firms keen on hiring new employees in Q4: Report

79% employers willing to hire graduates and entry-level employees in country

Almost 77 per cent employers in India’s services sector are keen to make new hires in Q4 of this financial year (January-March), said a report on Tuesday, marking strong business sentiment in the country at a time of global recession fears.

At least 73 per cent of employers had said the same in Q3, according to the Employment Outlook Report by staffing firm TeamLease. The report covered 573 small, medium and large companies in 14 service industries in 14 Indian cities. It included four hierarchical levels (entry, junior, mid and senior) in metro cities, tier- 1/ 2/3 cities and rural areas.  

In services and manufacturing, 68 per cent employers (65 per cent in Q3) expressed a positive hiring sentiment. Among major markets, the Indian service industry has the highest hiring intentions (68 per cent), followed by Asia-Pacific (48 per cent) and the Americas (45 per cent).

The report found a positive outlook for graduates and entry-level employees in India, with 79 per cent employers willing to hire them (hiring sentiment was 74 per cent in Q3).

In the Indian services sector, e-commerce employers (98 per cent) lead the way. E-commerce was followed by employers in telecommunications (94 per cent), educational services (93 per cent), financial services (88 per cent), retail (85 per cent) and logistics (81 per cent).

Around 82 per cent large enterprises are willing to hire, followed by small (61 per cent) and medium enterprises (50 per cent).

Mayur Taday, chief business officer at TeamLease Services, said that despite layoffs and IT industry hiring freeze elsewhere in the world, sentiment in India continues to improve.

“The Central government’s push towards increasing monetization ability, introducing FDI reforms, liberalising conventional satellite communication and remote sensing businesses to increase private sector participation has contributed to the employment growth. At this rate, India has already paved the way to become a global leader in the services sector,” he said.

In metro and Tier-1 cities, hiring intent in services is strong due to the telecom and financial services industries. Bangalore (97 per cent) leads in hiring sentiment, followed by Chennai (94 per cent), Delhi (90 per cent), Hyderabad (86 per cent) and Mumbai (85 per cent).

The services sector, however, continues to have attrition despite robust expansion. In the current December quarter, information technology (27 per cent) had the highest attrition, followed by educational services (18 per cent) and allied start-ups (15 per cent).

“With the 5G rollout, employers are already upskilling their current workforce for the upcoming 5G services. The upside of this activity has positively impacted educational, financial and knowledge outsourcing services. This is a huge step towards lowering the current attrition trend.” said Ajoy Thomas, vice president, TeamLease Services.