this story originally appeared in on jun 11 2013bangalorenew delhi in job market parlance the apriljune quarter is usually considered springtime the appraisal cycle is done and its the beginning of a new financial year but this year halfadozen staffing and placement firms say winter just refuses to go away in the first quarter we generally see a 1520 growth but this time we are flat we are not bullish at all about the next few quarters and there is no indicator to say things will be better we should gear up for jobless growth as both replacement and new hiring has stopped says shiv agrawal managing director for abc consultants kelly services has seen a 30 dropout rate in its it business which is a volume generator for the recruitment firm around 17 of the companys business comes from this industry and this time managing director kamal karanth has spotted an odd trend in the middle and senior segment employees who had circulated their resume for an immediate opening are reluctant to move out even after getting a job they are scanning but shy of taking the next step says karanth antal international network that looks at middle to seniorlevel hiring has also seen this trend it stated that even if companies had openings employees appeared unwilling to take the plunge their quarterly study shows that hiring has slowed too with 57 companies this quarter intending to hire against 59 in the yearago period one of the larger staffing firms teamlease services has seen a demand only because companies are shifting their hiring preference from unorganised players to organised ones the staffing companys growth has remained flat this quarter when compared on a liketolike basis despite appraisal period being over there is no demand in the job scenario and we do not foresee any major change in global or national scenario despite heading towards the election year said ashok reddy cofounder of the bangalorebased company sectors that are holding back are banking finance retail infrastructure power and real estate and it while pharma fmcg and biotechnology have openings these months have a natural tendency to look up but this time the mood is not there and business will not increase the way we had expected says aditya narayan mishra presidentstaffing and director marketing for chennaibased randstad india it has seen around 10 drop in these three months as compared to the same period last year even for industries that were looking up some months ago prospects have dimmed the healthcare sector was hiring last quarter but because of new developments like the new drug pricing control order 2013 even healthcare is slow and cautious now not a single sector is looking up and all seem to be in the waitandwatch mode said sreenivasa r yadavilli md futurestep india the recruitment firm does not expect any huge ramp up in hiring and yadavilli says most of the hiring on now is owing to incremental growth and replacement hiring asim handa