The Hindu Business Line : TN companies lead in hiring confidence: Study

Surprisingly, Karnataka, home to more than a thousand IT and ITES companies, comes seventh in the hiring confidence list, after Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi.

Though this could be attributed to certain seasonality factors such as financial year-end and hiring plans yet to be firmed up, Bangalore's failing infrastructure and certain policy decisions too could have affected the hiring confidence, Mr Pandia Rajan, Managing Director, Ma Foi, said.

The Ma Foi Employment Index (MEI), which tracks the level of recruitment activity in the country, is at 1.28 per cent this quarter. This has fallen from 3.35 per cent during the quarter January-March 2005 and 3.19 per cent in October-December 2004.

Speaking to press persons here, Mr Rajan said, "There is a limbo feeling across all sectors, but we find that sectors where policy clarity has come in very sharply, there has been growth."

Among the sectors that expressed the highest hiring confidence are telecom, IT, ITES, retail trade and pharma. The `no action' mood is also reflected in the number of jobs that companies are willing to `let go' or reduce.

According to the survey, in the last quarter, the 2,047 companies across 17 sectors were willing to reduce 7,137 jobs as against 1,928 jobs this quarter.

The study covering 2,047 companies in 17 sectors including retail, pharma, IT, ITES, telecom, chemical and allied, education, training and consulting, textiles, BFSI and auto also focussed on training at workplace.

"We found that training is considered low priority in the country. The average time an employee spends in training is around 6.28 man-hours as against the desired benchmark of 5-7 days," Mr Rajan stated.

The Ma Foi Employment Survey (MEtS), launched in November 2004 is a quarterly study focusing on employment trends in the organised sector in the country.

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