India Inc's hiring intent highest in Q3 at 41%: TeamLease

Riding high on the wave of pandemic-restrictions lifting off and consequent e-commerce and retail sectors performance, hiring intent stood at 41%, touching its zenith in Q3 of 2021 (Oct-Dec), a 3% gain over Q2 (July-September), according to a report from TeamLease Services.

The findings from the TeamLease Services platform reflect the positive economic sentiment and consumer confidence while also corroborating India Inc’s pent-up talent acquisition requirements. Although the corporate workforce demand has not touched the pre-pandemic mark, the continuous quarter-on-quarter increase in hiring intent, as mapped by TeamLease Services, points to significant business realignment to adjust to digital transformation needs. The workforce number is expected to expand by 430 million approximately by December 2021.
 
“Increasing customer convenience with digital means and consequent acceleration of e-commerce and social commerce to override lockdown-related social distancing protocols has pushed the need for startups in the space as well as the blue-collar workers,” the report said.

Associated sectors like e-commerce and technology startups (57%), FMCG (59%), retail (51%), and logistics (47%) have shown an uptick as compared to last quarter with the intent being at 53%, 51%, 48%, and 44% respectively.

Blue-collar hiring intent has seen an upsurge of 40% to meet sales delivery and warehousing management expectations. The IT sector has seen the maximum intent amongst business leaders to hire with 69% of companies confirming it; this is despite the current widely recognized attrition level in the IT sector (8.67%). Other sectors with high intent to acquire fresh talent are educational services (64%), healthcare and pharma (61%), and manufacturing, engineering, and infrastructure (39%).
 
 “Overturning the past quarters’ economic downturn and reverse migration of labour force, companies are bullish on hiring this quarter, which is a positive trend for the industry. India is growing at an 8% GDP rate owing to the rapid inoculation rate. Not to mention, precedents like fewer supply chain disruptions and festive season-led eCommerce sector growth are crucial reasons behind corporate recruitment appetite,” Speaking on the new recruitment trends,” said Ajoy Thomas, VP & Business Head, RELT vertical, TeamLease.  
 
Due to businesses repivoting and refocusing their strategies to better meet customer and market wants, the workforce requirement is slated to increase with Bengaluru (67%), New Delhi (59%), and Hyderabad (53%) leading the charts as opposed to 60%, 51%, and 41% companies intending to hire last quarter respectively. Other non-metro cities like Pune and Chandigarh are also expecting huge talent demand with hiring intent uptick by 46% and 43% respectively.
 
The hiring intent of non-metro cities, tier-2 and tier-3 cities and rural areas has also seen marked improvement from last quarters. While tier-2 cities witnessed a 40% growth in intent to hire, tier-3 saw a growth of 26%.