Hiring to be slow till fiscal-end: Assocham

Based on a survey of association members, the Assocham report on Sunday comes in the context of tepid job growth in the economy which has been recently impacted by demonetisation and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.

“With corporate India placing most energies on rationalising costs, including wage costs, and trying to de-leverage its balance sheet, the hiring outlook in the private sector is expected to stay muted till the beginning of fiscal 2018-19,” an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) release said here.

“The focus right now is how to de-leverage, consolidate, exit from non-core businesses and achieve lean and mean balance sheets. Going forward at least in the next quarter and a half, corporates would be busy improving their margins and reducing their debt costs, even as the top line growth may take a back seat,” it said. 

On Friday, US credit rating agency Moody’s upgraded India’s sovereign ratings to Baa2 from its lowest investment grade of Baa3 and changed the outlook for the country’s rating to stable from positive. It said this was based on the Indian government’s “wide-ranging programme of economic and institutional reforms.” Under these circumstance, the fresh hiring prospects do not look bright, maybe for the two quarters; however, things should look up in the next fiscal. The wage cost control would remain a key area of priority in the short term.