By Rukmini Rao
The latest 'Labour Market Update' by LinkedIn on the hiring trends based on its economic graph shows that between April and June, hiring in the country increased by 35 per cent. While the overall hiring activity is still down 15 per cent year-on-year as of end-June, the slow recovery is coming on the back of bottom hit in April when the hiring declined by 50 per cent year-on-year. However, this recovery is expected to remain flat in the coming weeks with the risk of second-wave of infections and possible lockdown measures by states in the future.
With industries such as travel, retail , FMCG and entertainment bearing the worst brunt of the pandemic, job seekers are now looking at work beyond the familiar sector. According to the company's analysis, job seekers who are currently in the affected sectors such as Recreation & Travel are 6.8 times more likely to look for jobs in a different sector, compared to pre-COVID times and people from the retail sector are 2.4 times more likely to apply for a job in a different sector. However, what is not surprising is people employed in the software and IT sector preferring to stay put and not even contemplating a change.
The report also suggests that the gap between males and females over the last few months has been coming down. In February this year male hires formed nearly 70 per cent of the workforce, while female comprised 30 per cent. In June it improved to 65 per cent male and 35 per cent female -- the divide narrowing from about 40 per cent in February to around 30 percentage points in June. The report also listed five hot jobs, which include Software Engineer, Business Development Manager, Sales Manager, Business Analyst and Content Writer, while the most sought after skills were JavaScript, SQL, Sales Management, Team Leadership and Recruitment.