8216;Temp staff hiring seen up 188217;

8220;Hiring numbers would be stepped up from the current 11-14 per cent to about 18 per cent over first quarter of 2010 as new practices to gauge capabilities mature,8221; it stated.

8220;The flip side to the growth in hiring is that most industries have slackened increment structures and kept salary revisions and growth to the minimum8211; a few even brought the numbers down,8221; it added.

However,some employers have rewarded select profiles,which require specialised skills,with fairly large pay hikes.

Among sectors,telecommunication and energy have emerged as the new growth engines with hiring increasing by about 16 per cent and salary hikes of 7.5 per cent,it added.

Infrastructure,essential services,and the IT/IT enabled services sector,that largely employ skilled labour and knowledge workers,are expected to raise salaries between 7.5 to 15 per cent this year.

Manufacturing and traditional services sector business except for retail,which employ relatively less skilled workforce,are not likely to increment payouts.