Sixty-four per cent of employers were uncertain about their hiring plans for the coming quarter, the survey of 3,600 companies across seven industries by staffing services firm Manpower showed on Tuesday.

The net employment outlook was at a seasonally adjusted 25 per cent for April to June, above a 3-½ year low of 19 per cent in the March quarter but 17 percentage points below the figure in the year earlier period.

The outlook is based on the difference between those who plan to add jobs and those who expect to cut them. Only a quarter of the respondents said they would add staff, compared with 43 per cent a year ago.

"(Employers) remain hesitant about adding employees at this time," Manpower's India chief, Naresh Malhan, said. "The modest improvement (quarter-on-quarter) ... could be the result of employers reappraising their cutbacks of the previous quarter."

The Indian economy, Asia's third-largest, expanded 5.3 per cent in the December quarter, the slowest pace in six years. The labour ministry estimated half a million jobs were lost in that period in sectors that make up 60 per cent of the economy.

If annual growth slips below 6 per cent, as some have forecast for the year beginning April, experts say there could be greater unemployment.

Among industries, the steepest decline in hiring intentions was seen in the mining and construction sector, where firms showed a 28 percentage point drop to 20 per cent.

Finance, insurance and real estate firms scored 21 per cent, which was 26 percentage points below the year-ago figure.