The hiring plans which remained weak across corporates is showing signs of slow recovery as per a survey result. "The modest pace at which the hiring sentiment is growing seems to indicate a steadier and stable recovery rather than a temporary spike," said co-founder and senior official of an employment agency.

The hiring outlook for the next six months time to March 2018 has risen to 91% as against 89% for the April-September period. Nonetheless, this modest growth in hiring plan is chiefly localized to metros and tier-I cities and the tier-II and tier-III cities are feeling the pinch yet again with a drop in hiring sentiment in comparison to April-September period. The study involved 16 major industries across 8 major cities.

Some seven sectors report a negative hiring sentiment including, agriculture and agrochemicals (4%), construction and real estate (7%), educational services (1%), fast moving consumer goods and durables (1%), manufacturing, engineering and infrastructure (2%), BPO / ITES (3%) and travel and hospitality (4%). The IT sector shows no change in its hiring plan over the next six months time. The hiring landscape in the manufacturing sector also improved remarkably from the earlier April-September period.

In the financial services and KPO industry, the sentiment was on a higher side by 3% and 2% points respectively. While 1% point growth is imminent in each of the e-commerce and start-ups, power and energy, media and health and pharmaceuticals sectors.

The report added "Large businesses continue to lead hiring sentiment, although marginally. The rate at which sentiment continues to decline among small businesses is concerning".

For the human resource and marketing professionals, the hiring activity is likely to fall sharply in the next six months time. Further sentiment for hiring on the top-level executive is high as compared to entry and junior-level employees which register a drop of 3% points for the October-March period.