As the economy tries to return to the growth territory, jobs begin to keep pace in some sectors

The flicker of the light at the end of the tunnel seems to getting brighter at last.

While job portals such as Naukri and Monster India report rising hiring figures in certain sectors, the comprehensive picture across the country suggests that the emergence of the Indian economy from the abyss of the pandemic is being reflected in employment generation figures.

While Naukri JobSpeak index registered a growth of 22% in hiring in February 2021 compared to January 2021 and Monster Employment Index recorded a growth of a more sober 6% over the same period.

But the more encouraging news seemed to be emerging from the broader economy. Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy data states that though the unemployment rate of 6.9% in February 2021 was slightly lower than 6.5% that in January 2021 but was a whole lot better than 9.1% in December.

Moreover, the February 2021 unemployment rate was lower than 7.6% that was the average for the period between July 2020 and February 2021. The last month’s unemployment rate was also lower than the pre-lockdown level of 7.8% recorded in February 2020.

The data also points in the same direction as the CSO data on GDP growth suggested on February 26. In the October-December quarter, the Indian economy climbed out of the contraction territory – when it recorded negative growths of 2.4% and 7.3% in April-June and July-September quarters – and posted a rise of 0.4% compared to the third quarter of 2019-20.

Labour-intensive sectors such as manufacturing, construction and agriculture recorded growths of 1.6%, 6.2% and 3.9% respectively in the October-December quarter.

At the upper end of the job pyramid, IIM Bangalore reported 100% placement for its students, while IIM Calcutta, which is yet to report placements that was completed earlier this week, was close to a similar experience. IIT-Kharagpur, which is yet to formally wrap up the process, too, was hopeful of placing all its students successfully.

According to data revealed by Naukri the sector that recorded highest generation of employment was Information Technology (12%), real estate (6%) and healthcare (3%).

In sectors such as education/teaching, pharma/biotechnology and BPO/ITES the employment contraction rates went down to (-)1% and (-)3%.

Out of the 19 sectors for which hiring data was revealed by Naukri, employment generation in seven sectors was considerably down in February 2021 compared with February 2020. These are Hotels, retail, insurance, construction, auto, oil & gas and media/dotcom/entertainment.

“Online hiring demand in February 2021 exceeded February 2020 level in 2 of the 27 industries monitored by the index,” the Monster Employment Index noted.

According to both Naukri and Monster, demand for professionals with experience (11 years and more) was picking up. Monster also said while hiring in IT software, hardware, and telecom rose by 4% that in arts/creative rose by 1%.

The Naukri report said that on an average there was 11% rise in hiring professionals with more than eight years of experience. Those to suffer the most were professionals with experience between 0 and 3 years since this sector witnessed a contraction of 13% in February compared with the same month in 2020.

As a city, Bangalore recorded a growth in hiring at 4%, while Hyderabad remained at 0%. Mumbai (-22%), Delhi/NCR (-13%), Kolkata (13%) and Pune (-7%) languished in the negative territory, according to Monster.

Naukri put growth in hiring in Hyderabad even higher at 8%.

Naukri.com chief business development officer Pawan Goyal said, “Around 88% IT recruiters have confirmed that new jobs will be created in the coming few months as per the latest Naukri Hiring Outlook survey, further confirming that the wave of digitisation will spread rapidly.”