About 92 percent of Indian recruiters expected either new or replacement or both hiring forms to happen over the next six months. By job platform Naukri, nearly 47 percent of the recruiters predicted new and replacement hiring, 26 percent expected only new job creation, and 20 percent said they would maintain their headcount in the coming six months. Only 4 percent of recruiters foresee layoffs/downsizing in the July-December period. “With 92 percent of recruiters forecasting hiring activity, coupled with a return to normalcy in hiring practices anticipated by more than half of the recruiters surveyed, the hiring outlook survey manifests an optimistic white-collar hiring landscape in the forthcoming half of 2023,” said Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer at Naukri.com.

Moreover, the report said that most of the recruiters expected Business Development, Marketing, and Operation roles to be leading hiring in the coming six months. Mid-Experience professionals were expected to remain in demand, followed by entry-level professionals. Nearly 70 percent of recruiters predicted attrition rates to remain below the 15 percent level in the coming six months, and only a tiny fraction of them predicted higher attrition rates of 40 percent or more.

These expectations around attrition trends show that employees will look to hold onto their current job profiles amidst current job market uncertainties. The highest attrition rate is expected across Business Development, Marketing, Operations, and HR roles, as well as, mid-level experience professionals. The majority of recruiters remained cautious concerning the increments offered by their organizations during the last appraisal cycle, with 42 percent of recruiters saying that their companies gave less than 10 percent increments and 31 percent of recruiters revealing that their organizations gave increments in between 10-15 percent. Only 6 percent of recruiters said that over 30 percent of increments were rolled out in the last appraisal cycle.