An uptick in white-collar permanent job mandates across India for the April-June quarter has brought some optimism into the hiring market, reports the Economic Times, citing staffing firms including Randstad, Adecco, ManpowerGroup India and ABC Consultants.

Manufacturing, infrastructure, pharma and healthcare, global capability centres (GCCs), engineering and banking and financial services are among the sectors taking the lead on the hiring front amid large-scale public-private investments, strong digital transformation initiatives, increased consumer demand, and advancements in healthcare technology, the firms said. Digital roles are in high demand, from those in digital marketing to those in emerging technologies such as AI (artificial intelligence), ML (machine learning), big data, and analytics, the firms also stated.

"The hiring scenario for the coming months, based on the demand observed in the first quarter of the financial year is optimistic," said Karthikeyan Kesavan, director, permanent recruitment at Adecco India. "Adecco has experienced a strong start, indicating positive momentum. In April-June 2024, the mandates for white-collar perm hiring have increased by more than 50% year over year.”

At Randstad India, mandates for white-collar permanent hiring in the April-June 2024 quarter are displaying an optimistic trend with a 12%-15% growth as compared to the same period last year and around 5%-7% growth as compared to the last quarter.

Alok Kumar, senior director at ManpowerGroup India, said, “Large employers are more confident about hiring, but startups are still wary.” Kumar added, ““Some companies are holding back their hiring decisions because of the elections; otherwise, the situation in this quarter would be even better,” Kumar said. “Things will improve further in the coming months.”

Meanwhile, Shiv Agrawal, managing director of ABC Consultants, said, “The outlook is neutral to good.” ABC Consultants has seen an approximately 10% jump in leadership hiring over the last quarter, Agrawal added. “Auto, power, infra, real estate, aerospace and defence are most active; tech is showing the beginnings of a turnaround,” Agrawal said.