In search of new recruits across India

India Dispatch: Indian companies are going on a hiring drive to fill vacancies in the booming services, financial and property sectors.

Tata Consultancy plans to hire more workers as demand for its services continues to increase. Above, one of Tata's training centres in Trivandrum. Namas Bhojani / Bloomberg News

Indian companies are going on a hiring drive to fill vacancies in the booming services, financial and property sectors.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is a good example. The Mumbai company is planning to hire an additional 15,000 employees during this quarter alone - and it plans to add a total of about 50,000 to its workforce this year.

TCS says its robust outlook is a key contributor to its recruitment programme.

"The demand environment is quite good," said Ajoyendra Mukherjee, the head of global human resources at TCS. "Some of the positive indicators we have had in [the third quarter] such as a good deal flow from the UK, US and continental Europe, India and the Asia-Pacific. Given these indicators, we do not see any need to be cautious, and that is why we are going ahead with our recruitment."

TCS is not alone. Hundreds of Indian companies are on the hunt foradditional employees. In fact, the strongest job outlook in the world is in India, according to a survey by the employment services company ManpowerGroup.

The country's net employment outlook - an indicator of recruitment plans - is expected to rise from 41 per cent in the first quarter to 44 per cent in the second quarter this year. Most job opportunities are in the services sector, with nearly six in 10 employers planning to add staff in the coming months, the survey said.

An increase in per capita income is one of the key reasons that India Inc's services need more people.

"Services sector is a winner because Indians' purchasing power had increased and people started spending more, thus increasing companies' sales," said Rajesh Kumar, the chief executive of the recruitment company MyHiringClub.com. "To make their presence in market, India Inc is hiring more manpower."

After services, finance, insurance and property are the sectors with the most employment opportunities. The weakest job outlooks are in public administration and education.

Recruiters have also noticed the recent optimism from companies.

"We had seen staff demand to peak in the current month to its highest in the last four years," said Mr Kumar. "Consumer goods, retail and financial services sectors have all created maximum amount of jobs in the last three months. And we are expecting the same sectors, along with IT, leading the hiring activity throughout 2012."

The European economic downturn has meant many companies have been looking to India for cheaper alternatives, thus creating opportunities for the country, particularly in IT outsourcing.

"Last couple of quarters we have seen an excellent growth in continental Europe and the deals that we have closed in Europe have been significant in the last six months - given that we expect Europe to do better than it has been doing," said Mr Mukherjee.

Globally, developing economies ruled the roost when it came to employment outlook. The Manpower survey said that after India, the countries with the best hiring prospects were Brazil, Taiwan, Peru and Turkey.

The weakest hiring outlooks were observed in Greece because of the country's deep economic crisis. Employers in Spain and the Czech Republic were also planning to trim workforces instead of hiring, the survey noted.

twitter: Follow our breaking business news and retweet to your followers. Follow us