As economic activity recovers from the COVID-19 slump, hiring demand too witnesses an uptick. In March, hiring demand witnessed a 6 per cent year-on-year growth, according to the Monster Employment Index (MEI). Even as hiring activity saw a marginal dip of 2.4 per cent owing to the appraisal season, the index remained positive as recruitment continued across a broad range of sectors.
The Monster Employment Index, compiled by Monster India, is a monthly analysis of online job posting activity based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities, to present a snapshot of employer online recruitment activity nationwide.
Online recruitment activity exceeded the year-ago level in most of the cities in the survey. In fact, metros recorded a double-digit growth on an annual basis.
CITIES
When it comes to cities, Mumbai takes the lead followed by Coimbatore. The job market in Mumbai led the cities monitored for the first time, with a yearly growth of 21 per cent, followed by Coimbatore (up 20 per cent), Chennai and Hyderabad (up 16 per cent each).
E-recruitment activity in Bengaluru was up 15 per cent. While the trend was positive, it has weakened from the previous month. Pune recorded 12 per cent growth, followed by Kolkata and Delhi-NCR at 13 per cent each.
The report stated that Tamil Nadu’s investments in SEZs and intent to grow into a deep tech startup base has boosted the demand for jobs in both Coimbatore and Chennai. Both the cities have witnessed an emergence of fintech and SaaS startups.
“Flushed with investor money, Mumbai continues to rule as the financial capital with several fin-tech companies setting up base, boosting hiring in the market. Bengaluru and Pune are emerging as the secondary hubs for Fintech start-ups with several entrepreneurs wanting to tap into the latent tech talent available in the markets,” the report added.
SECTORS
Hiring, moreover, was driven in March by Banking/Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) which saw an uptick of 37 per cent, followed by telecom/ISP (up 17 per cent) and production and manufacturing (up 16 per cent). Hospitality and travel sector also saw an increase of 11 per cent.
Meanwhile, engineering, cement, construction, and iron/steel sectors saw a dip of 20 per cent year-on-year, the sharpest deceleration among sectors. Media and entertainment saw a dip of 16 per cent, FMCG, food and packaged food industries were down by 13 per cent.
ROLES
Tech, finance and HR roles were in high demand. IT-Hardware & software, HR & admin along with finance & accounts job roles were in high demand, marking a double-digit growth in all metros. Top management level employees’ hiring was up 34 per cent, followed by mid-senior level (up 22 per cent), intermediate level (up 20 per cent) and senior-level (up 13 per cent). Entry-level jobs saw a growth of 8 per cent due to campus hiring in the March quarter.
When it came to BFSI, roles in financial statement, wealth management, investment banking and cyber-security saw greater demand, while metaverse and its potential applications created a lot of career opportunities when it comes to tech jobs. Roles such as Design Architects, Software Designers, System Validation Engineers, 3D Artists, AR/VR Maintenance and Support, and Design/Graphics Engineer are expected to be in high demand in the coming months, the report added.
Sekhar Garisa, CEO, Monster.com said that it is heartening to see the Indian economy overcoming setbacks and challenges with hiring momentum due to COVID-19.
“It is also encouraging to see a substantial rise in business activity across tier-2 cities given that smaller cities have historically feathered the adverse effects of the pandemic crisis with a surplus talent pool to boot. As India Inc. continues to adopt the hybrid and back-to-office work models, we hope to see a continued recovery and a step forward to normalcy in the coming months,” he added.
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