Return-to-office trends may be dragging down metros’ hiring in Sept: Monster index

Hiring in the metro cities declined in September 2021 in contrast to their performance over the last few months, while smaller cities like Baroda and Ahmedabad registered a rise in job posting activity during the month possibly because offices are reopening even as the workforce prefers remote working, according to the Monster Employment Index released on Tuesday.

Monthly findings showed that Baroda (3 per cent), Ahmedabad (1 per cent), and Delhi-NCR (1 per cent) witnessed a positive uptick in job posting activity in September 2021 compared to August 2021. Meanwhile, hiring in most metro cities such as Kolkata (-4 per cent), Chennai (-4 per cent), Bangalore (-3 per cent), Pune (-2 per cent), Hyderabad (-2 per cent) and Mumbai (-1 per cent) declined over the previous month. This is despite an uptick in the past few months, the analysis report by job portal Monster.com said.
 
The trend is reversed in the year-on-year findings which showed that metros Bengaluru (38 per cent), Pune (22 per cent), Hyderabad (20 per cent), Chennai (18 per cent), Delhi (6 per cent), and Mumbai (4 per cent) grew significantly, while hiring in Kolkata (-29 per cent), Jaipur (-24 per cent), Baroda (-12 per cent), Chandigarh (-9 per cent), Ahmedabad (-6 per cent), Coimbatore (-6 per cent), and Kochi (-3 per cent) declined.  
 
This phenomenon could be on the rationale of back-to-office trends and remote working preferences of the workforce, the report pointed out.
 
“As we approach the end of the quarter, it is promising to see that we have witnessed 6 per cent growth in hiring activity over the last three months. With imminent festive sales and significant increase in e-commerce activities, it is notable that job roles for logistics and supply chain are well in demand. Moreover, with emerging back-to-office trends and increased vaccination efforts, we are bound to see a change in the Indian recruitment space for the better,” said Monster.com CEO Sekhar Garisa.
 
Banking & financial services, and insurance (31 per cent) outshone the IT- hardware, software industry in September 2021 compared to the previous year owing to digital innovation efforts, while HR & Administration roles saw marked positive yearly uptick across all metropolitan cities during the period, the report showed.

Further, improved e-commerce activities and online festive sales spurred hiring in the printing & packaging industry (11 per cent) and the purchase, logistics and supply chain (7 per cent) functions, it said.
The survey data found that hiring demand increased 8 per cent over the last six months, even with the impact of the second wave of the pandemic. Compared to August 2021, September saw a stable monthly growth of 1 per cent in job posting activity. Moreover, job postings improved 9 per cent between September 2020 and September 2021, indicating an optimistic outlook for the rest of the year, it said.

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