According to the recently released Manpower Employment Outlook report from Manpower Inc, the most extensive, forward-looking employment survey in the world, gathering data from more than 45,000 employers across the globe each quarter, has found that the fourth quarter (October to December 2005 period) shows positive employment prospects globally.

Of the 23 countries surveyed by the organisation hiring expectations of Indian employers are the strongest with a 'net employment outlook' of plus 40 per cent which is 6 percentage points up from the reported 'net employment outlook' of plus 34 per cent seen in Q3.

Of the 3,835 employers interviewed in India, 43 per cent said they expected to hire more people during Q4 of 2005, while 3 per cent said they expected to reduce their workforce and 48 per cent said they would maintain the present levels of employment

The survey covers employers in seven industries, finance / insurance / real estate; manufacturing; mining and construction; public administration and education; services; transportation and utilities; wholesale and retail trade.

The survey says increased hiring is expected across all industries, with the greatest expectations reported by services employers (+45 per cent) — the most optimistic for the second consecutive quarter — followed by employers in finance / insurance / real estate (+43 per cent); public administration & education (+43 per cent); mining & construction (+39 per cent); and, manufacturing (+38 percent).

Net employment outlook for the wholesale and retail trade sector is expected to be +33 per cent while the same for transportation and utilities — relatively the least optimistic — has a healthy outlook of +32 per cent.

While maintaining its position as the most buoyant sector in India, services have shown only a marginal quarter-on-quarter increase of 1 percentage point in net employment outlook, from +44 per cent to +45 per cent. Employer expectations in finance / insurance / real estate have grown by a modest 2 percentage points over the third quarter, while quarter-on-quarter improvements in manufacturing and in public administration & education were healthier (up 4 and 9 percentage points, respectively).

Employers in the transportation and utilities as well as wholesale and retail trade sectors showed the greatest quarter-over- quarter increase in their net employment outlook, by 15 and 12 percentage points, respectively. The only sector to show a slight dip in net employment outlook is the mining and construction sector, which declined by 1 percentage point from +40 per cent in Q3.

According to Soumen Basu, executive chairman of Manpower India, "Employment prospects in the next quarter are extremely bright across all the seven industry sectors surveyed", he said. "However, the high growth across sectors is widening the gap between demand and supply of skilled and mature talent," he said.

Basu added, "We received very positive feedback for the inaugural report of the Manpower Employment Outlook survey last quarter. This reinforces our belief that industry and policy makers have a strong need for reliable, forward-looking data on the labour market. For the current survey, we have enhanced our coverage to 3,835 employers to achieve an even fuller representation of the Indian economy".

Though the survey found that the majority of employers in 20 of 23 countries and territories polled expected to add staff during the fourth quarter of 2005, the outlook is decidedly less optimistic across the world than it was three months ago.

A quarterly comparison of adjusted data shows that softer hiring activity can be expected in 13 of 23 countries from October through December. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2004, labour markets are expected to improve in only eight of 23 countries. Employers in five countries reported identical hiring outlook compared to last year at this time.

In the Asia Pacific region, only employers in India and Singapore reported an improved outlook from the third quarter. The Japanese employment outlook remains consistent from third to fourth quarter, which is an improvement over the fourth quarter expectations a year ago. The least optimistic hiring outlook in the region was reported in China, down slightly from third quarter.

In the Americas, the labor markets continue to be strong following the same stable hiring patterns seen throughout the year.