New Delhi, June 12: Here’s some good news riding the wave of strong economic growth: India Inc is expected to create more jobs in the next quarter.

Nearly 42 per cent corporates surveyed by a global employment consultancy across 30 Indian cities have said they will hire more people between July and September 2007.

Manpower Inc said another 42 per cent of the 4,925 employers interviewed expected staff strength to remain at current levels. Only 3 per cent anticipated a decline in hiring.

This places the country’s net employment outlook at a positive 39 per cent, the Manpower Employment Outlook survey released today said.

It also represents an increase of 8 percentage points quarter-over-quarter and a decrease of 4 percentage points year-over-year.

The increased hiring is likely to be driven by the services industry, with 46 per cent employers showing a positive hiring intention. Manufacturing follows closely behind at 40 per cent with transport and wholesale trade at 38 per cent.

“Continued confidence and global competitiveness of the Indian IT sector has fuelled increased activity in the labour market. Moreover, the IT-ITeS industry is expected to increase its contribution to the GDP this year. This growth will certainly augment hiring activities,” said Manpower India executive chairman Soumen Basu.

Employers in south India reported the most positive employment outlook at 44 per cent, the survey said. West followed at 41 per cent, east at 37 per cent and north at 33 per cent.

Economists said the largely positive hiring intention in manufacturing showed that industrial growth figures were at last being translated into jobs.

The weakest intentions were revealed by employers in the public administration and education sectors, with a net employment outlook of over 27 per cent.

Of the 27 countries and territories surveyed globally this quarter, hiring intentions continued to be robust in India, Singapore, Peru, Canada, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, Costa Rica, Japan and Hong Kong.

Hiring intentions in finance, insurance and real estate were stronger quarter-over-quarter, with an increase of 13 percentage points in the net employment outlook.

This is the first improvement since the fourth quarter of 2006. The outlook in five of the seven industry sectors has improved quarter-over-quarter.

Employers in all eight countries and territories surveyed across the Asia Pacific region anticipate positive hiring activity for the third quarter. Only Indian employers are anticipating a third-quarter outlook stronger than the previous quarter.