Growth in temporary hiring has seen a massive drop this year, hurt by the

RELATED ARTICLES FCI to hire 6,000 more employees in six months Zuckerberg salary to dip to $1 at Facebook Retail FDI will create millions of jobs: Timothy Roemer Coca-Cola to invest $1b in Mexico; to create over 1 lakh jobs HCL wants more Indian firms to create jobs abroad

global meltdown and reduction in headcount by most companies. According to TeamLease’s Temp Salary Primer 2009, temporary hiring has recorded only 4-6 per cent growth since October last year compared to the 25-30 per cent growth it had witnessed during the first two quarters of financial year 2008-2009.

This trend is likely to continue till the end of this financial year with revival only in 2010. “Till about 6-8 months back, there used to be about 12,000 daily open positions. This has comedown to 3,000-4000 following the slowdown,” said Rajesh A R, VP of TeamLease Services.

However, the temporary hiring market has witnessed significant rise in the level of penetration across industries and locations than it used to a year ago. “It is true that the volume of hiring remains low, but new areas are emerging within the sectors thereby leading to improvement in the penetration of temporary hiring. For instance, energy, healthcare and pharmaceuticals have turned to temping for all possible profiles — and energy has done so in large numbers.” he added.

Further, growth in salary scales has also taken a hit. While last year saw a 14 per cent year-on-year increase, this is expected to dip to an average rate of 7.5 per cent by the end of this financial year. The study also points out that communication, energy, healthcare and pharma have overtaken the IT/ITeS sectors this year with salary growth rates in excess of 10.8 per cent.

“The biggest upsides of the last year have been higher returns to skill and a blunting in the hyperinflation of employee costs. Now, rewards are starting to get more differentiated and the rise in overall hiring standards is creating huge productivity pressures for employees whose salaries had got ahead of their capabilities,” Rajesh pointed out.

In addition, the salaries between temporary and permanent hiring are converging. The convergence is sharpest for candidates with 0 to 1 years and 1 to 3 years experience. Also, the variance between the salaries of temporary and permanent employees having 3-5 years experience has narrowed this year, reflecting labour market maturity and a more efficient people supply chain.