Demand for freshers up 19%, import/export sector sees highest job postings: report

Due to the rapid adoption of emerging tech across sectors in the country, India has managed to continue achieving post-pandemic recovery and saw its job market growth for the second consecutive month of FY23 with a benchmark year-on-year recovery of 9 per cent in May 2022, according to the Monster Employment Index.

Sectors like telecom, BFSI (Banking, financial services and insurance), and Import/Export have exhibited positive job trends contributing to the overall growth in job posting activity as 22 out of 27 industries, reflected in the MEI, showed an increase in demand compared to the year-ago level.

Sekhar Garisa, CEO, Monster.com, while commenting on job trends for May 2022, said, "The beginning of FY23 has shown positive hiring scales given the anticipated 5G rollout and the recovery of several business segments across the country. So far, the Indian job market is faring well despite the current sentiment on sobered hiring.”

However, amid the high inflation worries which are driving up costs due to the current geopolitical and socio-economic scenario worldwide, the Index showed that the domestic job market has dropped 4 per cent month-on-month reflecting cautious recruiter sentiments this month.

“Recruiters have not scaled down their ambitions to hire talent and there is most definitely unmet demand in the market today. In terms of the job outlook, businesses will continue to grow, and we see this demand reflected in segments such as Import/ Export, Telecom, Travel & Hospitality and BFSI, which continue to grow on the back of growing digitisation efforts,” Garisa added.

Online recruitment website Monster India’s Monster Employment Index (MEI), which is a monthly analysis of online job posting activity, is based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities between May 1 to 31, 2022, claims the company.

Import/Export sector sees increased job demand

The MEI revealed that with the declining impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chains crisis also improving, India’s Import/Export had witnessed job postings for talent to grow 47 per cent, the highest ever increase recorded over the past year for this segment.

Moreover, job postings in the BFSI sector, due to the new wave of digitisation, cashless payments and digital money, saw a steady growth of 38 per cent, followed by Telecom/ISP (up 36 per cent). Interestingly, the telecom sector is also expected to witness a further amplification due to the anticipated 5G rollout in the country.

The travel and tourism sector were up 29 per cent and has shown a full recovery surpassing marginal and negative escalation patterns over the last four quarters, the report added.

The Index also revealed that the segment has nearly doubled in terms of growth since April 2022, which recovered at 15 per cent annually. Office Equipment/Automation was up 101 per cent, Real Estate grew 25 per cent, and Retail rose 11 per cent.

The media & entertainment sector, having observed a drop since Sept 2021, reduced by 19 per cent and is continuing to witness a steep slope of decline suggesting a long way towards post-pandemic recovery.

Online recruitment activity contracted 9 per cent in Engineering, Cement, Construction, Iron/Steel sectors despite a minor improvement in April 2022. The shipping/marine sector saw a drop of 4 per cent, the first annual dip from a year-ago level.

Tier-2 markets mark long term recovery

As per the MEI’s city-specific data, Coimbatore saw a growth of 27 per cent and again topped the chart surpassing top metro cities like Mumbai (up 26 per cent), Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad (up 16 per cent) in terms of annual growth in job opportunities.

Cities such as Chennai saw 15 per cent growth, Pune grew 13 per cent, Ahmedabad rose 15 per cent, Bangalore was up 9 per cent and Kolkata grew 6 per cent.

Tier-2 job markets, on the other hand, continue to exhibit positive employment sentiment in May 2022 across Baroda, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Kolkata which saw a growing annual demand of between 2 to 12 per cent.

Travel and Tourism roles surge

Travel and Tourism professionals saw a spike of 27 per cent in hiring demand, up for the third consecutive month. Online job posting activity for Finance & Accounts was up 49 per cent and HR & Admin grew 36 per cent. Online hiring for Customer Service was up 16 per cent and witnessed double-digit growth annually for the first time since the pandemic began.

Purchase/Logistics/Supply Chain witnessed a dip of 2 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Annual demand for freshers also stood at par with top management and grew 19 per cent. In May 2022, online hiring activity for entry-level job seekers, with experience of up to 3 years, came at par with top management, with experience of more than 16 years.