Chennai: The boom in the job market seems to be slowing down. According to the latest US-based Manpower Employment Outlook Survey conducted by Manpower Inc, USA and its Indian subsidiary, 58 per cent of all the employers surveyed are expecting there to be no changes to the staffing levels while 33 per cent expect an increase and 2 per cent predict a decrease during the second quarter of 2007.

The survey was conducted interviewing 4,858 employers in the following sectors: finance, insurance, real estate, manufacturing, mining, construction, public administration, education, services, transport, utilities, wholesale and retail trade. The question asked was," How do you anticipate total employment at your location to change in the three months to the end of June 2007 as compared to the current quarter?"

The survey was conducted in January 2007 and reports the hiring intentions of employers for the Quarter April - June 2007. The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey is conducted quarterly to measure employers' intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their workforce during the next quarter.

In India hiring intentions remain robust with a 'net employment outlook' of above 31 per cent. This figure has been arrived at after taking the percentage of employers anticipating total employment to increase, and subtracting from this, the percentage expecting to see a decrease in employment at their location in the next quarter.

As against the first quarter outlook of 2007, the results of the latest survey shows a decrease of eight percentage points and a year-over-year decrease of nine percentage points. According to Manpower Services, the margin of error for Indian data is +/- 1.5 per cent.

Employers in all four regions in India anticipate that they will take on more staff. While the employers in the north, south and western regions report a more positive outlook those in the eastern India are slightly less positive. But their outlook is still healthy at +26 per cent.

However quarter-over-quarter, hiring activity is anticipated to weaken in all Indian regions, with the west and south regions reporting higher decreases [11 and 14 percentage points respectively]. The least decline has been reported in the eastern region [2 percentage points].

Year-over-year hiring reflects a similar picture with all regions reporting decreases in hiring activities. In this instance, the strongest decline in hiring intentions can be observed in the south region [15 percentage points] and the smallest in the north [two percentage points]

Hiring intentions of employers in all but one industry sector reveal quarter-over-quarter decreases in 'net employment outlook'. Only employers in the public administration and education sectors report no change in hiring activity.

Year-over-year comparisons reveal decreases in all but two of the seven industry sectors. The public administration and education industry sectors show an increase in hiring activity year- over- year (2 per cent) while employers in the mining and construction sectors report no change in hiring intentions. Employers in the transport and utilities industries report the largest year-over-year decline in hiring intentions of all of the industry sectors - down a considerable 20 percentage points.

According to him, the survey covers both temporary and permanent hiring, though it does not provide a bifurcation. Similarly, data is not available as to the actual hiring during the previous quarters as against the intentions expressed after the earlier surveys.

"In India the survey has been conducted for 8 quarters and it is too early to publish such comparative data. In countries like US where the survey has been conducted for over 40 years such data is available."