Online hiring demand saw a 10 percent annual incline, indicating an encouraging outlook on jobs in India, a study by job search website Monster.com has revealed. The report shows that in January 2022, online hiring demand saw a 10 percent annual incline.
Interestingly, demand to hire witnessed a one percent decline month-on-month, reflecting the cautious approach of Indian employers owing to ‘Omicron conditions’ in January 2022, compared to the previous month.
On account of the third Covid-19 wave, industries such as retail (-8 percent), travel and tourism (-8 percent), and home appliances (-5 percent) witnessed a dip in demand, while the agro (5 percent) and BFSI (4 percent) sectors continued to grow on a monthly basis (Jan 2022 vs Dec 2021).
In January 2022, job demand in office equipment/automation (106 percent) remained highest among industries. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, both metro and Tier-2 cities show impressive annual growth, while functions such as software, hardware, telecom (27 percent), finance and accounts (26 percent), and HR and Admin (22 percent) projected remarkable upticks in job posting activity.
It is further notable that job demand across all experience levels witnessed encouraging sparks of hiring intent in the month. However, given the economic impact of the third wave, nine of the 13 industries monitored by the index saw a fall in the intent to hire (Jan 2022 vs Dec 2021)
Amidst the onset of the third wave and subsequent restrictions, industries such as retail (-8 percent) and travel and tourism (-8 percent) saw a month-on-month de-growth. These were followed by home appliances (-5 percent) FMCG, food and packaged food (-5 percent), BPO/ITES (-3 percent), production and manufacturing (-2 percent), and engineering, cement, construction, and iron/steel (-2 percent). Further, education, telecom/ISP, and healthcare, biotech and life sciences, and pharmaceuticals have witnessed a slight fall, with one percent decline in job postings (Jan 2022 vs Dec 2021).
On the other hand, agro-based industries (5 percent), BFSI (4 percent), automotive/ ancillaries/ tyres (3 percent), government/ PSU/ defence (3 percent), oil/gas/petroleum, power (2 percent), logistics, courier/freight/transportation (1 percent), and shipping/marine (1 percent) witnessed positive uptick in demand for talent on a month-on-month basis. It is anticipated that the optimistic growth trend in agro-based industries will continue with the promotion of chemical-free natural farming, ‘Kisan Drones’, and accommodation for agri-tech announced in the Union Budget 2022.
On a YoY basis, the highest job demand was witnessed in the office equipment/automation industry (106 percent) followed by the printing/packaging (34 percent) and BFSI (34 percent) industries. Sectors that showed demand in double digits and high-teens include telecom/ISP (26 percent) which registered notable progress in January 2022, followed by IT-hardware, software (22 percent) and logistic, courier/freight/transportation (19 percent).
Other sectors that displayed sequential growth (Jan 2022 vs Jan 2021) include automotive/ancillaries/tyres (14 percent), BPO/ITES (13 percent), advertising, MR, PR (11 percent), healthcare, biotechnology and life sciences, pharmaceuticals (9 percent), agro-based Industries (7 percent), retail (4 percent) and production and manufacturing (4 percent).
However, industries such as engineering, cement, construction, iron/steel (-19 percent) recorded a negative YoY growth followed by media and entertainment (-7 percent), travel and tourism (-6 percent) and education (-5 percent).
Post pandemic, metro cities project highest annual growth in demand to hire
While a majority of cities showed a slight uptick last month owing to the festival season demand, in January (Jan 2022 vs Dec 2021), cities such as Delhi (-8 percent) projected the steepest de-growth in job posting activity, followed by Chandigarh (-6 percent), Baroda (-5 percent), Hyderabad (-3 percent), Ahmedabad (-2 percent), Kolkata (-1 percent), Mumbai (-1 percent), Jaipur (-1 percent), and Chennai (-1 percent). Locations that indicated a positive trend are Kochi (1 percent) and Coimbatore (1 percent) with a marginal increase in job posting activity, followed by Pune and Bangalore, which witnessed stabilized growth.
However, in YoY terms, metro cities continue to lead the way with Bangalore (25 percent), Chennai (19 percent), Pune (18 percent), Hyderabad (17 percent), Mumbai (17 percent), Kolkata (13 percent), and Delhi-NCR (3 percent) registering positive growth.
It is notable that BFSI and IT-hardware, software industries fared considerably well across metros. Among Tier-2 cities, Coimbatore (18 percent), Kochi (8 percent), and Ahmedabad (7 percent) saw significant improvement, while Chandigarh (-11 percent), Jaipur (-6 percent), and Baroda (-1 percent) witnessed the slowest growth in online hiring activity.
Job roles which continue to observe a dip in hiring include sales and business development (-15 percent), hospitality and travel (-9 percent), customer service (-9 percent), arts/creative (-6 percent), purchase/logistics/supply chain (-5 percent), legal (-4 percent), and engineering/production (-1 percent).
On a YoY basis, the index noted positive hiring activity across all experience levels in January 2022 (Jan 2022 vs Jan 2021). Top management roles (over 16 years) dominated the pie with 51 percent growth, while mid-senior level (7-10 years) saw 36 percent yearly growth, followed by intermediate level (4-6 years) with a 29 percent uptick. Demand for jobs across senior management (11-15 years) and entry-level (0-3 years) talent stood at 10 percent and 9 percent, indicating a positive outlook.
Sekhar Garisa, CEO of Monster.com, a Quess company said, “The third wave of the pandemic certainly took a toll on several recovering sectors such as travel and tourism and retail in January 2022. However, it is important to consider that the Index has recorded a 10 percent yearly uptick, indicating that this is temporary dip in the demand for talent caused by the Omicron wave.”
Source: Indiablooms.com
