News: 'Bangalore is top in business outlook'

(SF 11/10/2006) Chennai - India Inc is on a hiring spree and this hiring momentum is expected to continue in the October-December 2006 quarter as well.

All sectors are expected to increase their hiring activities; main drives being the services and FMCG sectors, according to a study conducted by TeamLease, a leading staffing solutions company based in Bangalore.

The first quarterly Employment Outlook Survey for the quarter tracked the hiring expectations of the private sector in the country. The study covered 490 companies across eight cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Ahmedabad.

Retail, media & FMCG, followed by IT and financial services are also set to witness recruitments on a higher scale.

Given that the economy is growing at over eight per cent per annum, business outlook index suggests that companies in these above mentioned sectors are likely to hire at a rate which is faster than the growth of its business.

The reason may be attributed to growth of the sunrise sectors. Companies covered across sectors include retail, media, FMCG, IT, financial service, infrastructure, ITeS, manufacturing and engineering.

Bangalore projects the highest "Business Outlook Index" point, followed by Mumbai and Delhi in the next three months with a major contribution from retail, media & FMCG, infrastructure and financial services.

According to Nirupama V.G, Associate Director, TeamLease, "the buoyancy in the market is incredible. Given that 10 million people will be recruited every year (as per the Planning Commission Report) this is just the tip of the iceberg and we will see an unprecedented growth in the job market in the years to come."

The survey also suggests that Mumbai (98 index points) followed by Delhi (93 index points) and Bangalore (84 index points) have the largest employment base indicating that most of the companies would be hiring in these cities.

The national average is at 80 index points, which is followed by Chennai, Ahmedabad and Pune. Even cities with index points below the national average such as Kolkata reflect more companies planning to increase hiring activities as against those who are not.

The geographical trend projects companies favoring hires from metro and class I cities at 78 per cenbt. The type of industries and the nature of job require qualified personnel largely available in urban areas. Since the report covers the organised sector, data interpretation is focused on urban centers as well.

Bulk of the recruitment will be at the junior level at 86 per cent. Hiring trends across functions project marketing highest at 31 per cent, followed by IT at 18 per cent, production at 17 per cent, finance and others (customer service, quality assurance and maintenance etc) at 11 per cent, administration at 8 per cent and HR at 4 per cent.