Hiring by India Inc. (India’s formal jobs sector) sank to a two-year low in the June quarter, even slipping to the lows of early 2020 for some recruitment firms when the country was hit by the first wave of the pandemic, reports LiveMint. Hiring firms across sectors say there are about 225,000 active jobs open in the market, about 100,000 less than a year earlier. Reduced revenue visibility, and freeze on fresh hirings after few quarters of 'over-hiring and layoffs' has led to a 75% quarterly drop in recruitment. “Hiring demand in both permanent and contract staffing has gone down by 75% for us when compared on a quarterly basis. The April to June mandates are now at par with same period in 2020," said Sunil Chemmankotil, chief executive officer at Teamlease Digital.

Prasadh M.S., head of workforce research at specialist staffing firm Xpheno said, “We are looking at a muted April-June quarter of 2023 with active talent demand dipping to nearly match the previous lows seen in April-June of 2021. The low demand in 2021 was driven by the cautionary slowdown during the second wave of the pandemic. The current quarter's low action is driven by continued dip in tech spend and low to no expansion hiring by key cohorts of tech.” Xpheno's data shows that the June quarter is expected to project 228,000 active jobs across sectors compared to 311,000 in the same period last year.