Despite pandemic, hiring sentiment up slightly in May: Report

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A study by staffing company monster.com has said that hiring activity showed a small growth in May despite mobility restrictions in many major states. The company that measured recruitment activity in its platform, said the numbers in May was 1% higher than the figures in April and 4% higher compared to May last year.

When it came to hiring for senior management level professionals, with 16 or more years of work experience, hiring activity witnessed a growth of 66% year-on-year (May 2021 vs. May 2020), the report said.

Hiring in hardware and software sectors recorded a year-on-year growth of 67% in Bangalore and 49.5% in Hyderabad. These are the top two cities in terms of hiring during the second wave in India.

Interestingly, apart from pharma, information technology was the only sector that maintained a positive growth rates in all the four quarters of FY21, according to data analysed by the Reserve Bank of India.

Industries that indicated the highest year-on-year growth in hiring across the key cities apart from hardware and software are banking, financial services and the insurance sector.

As many as 45% of the industries indicated positive month-on-month (May 2021 versus April 2021) growth in hiring. The sectors to record the highest growths were retail (24%), home appliances (13%), and telecom/ISP (10%), said the study.

Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad

A monthly comparison between May and April 2021 shows growth in hiring at Kolkata (7%), Bengaluru (5%), Kochi (2%), and Pune (1%). It is promising for cities such as Kolkata and Kochi that have seen multiple dips in hiring as per previous reports.

Compared to April 2021, Ahmedabad (-10%), Chandigarh (-6%), and Jaipur (-5%) witnessed a dip in job postings in May 2021.

Year-on-year (May 2021 versus May 2020) data indicates that the tech hubs of India are showing promise in growth in hiring – cities such as Bengaluru (46%) and Hyderabad (26%) have witnessed the highest growth.

When it comes to year-on-year, recruitment activities showed substantial uptrend in cities such as Pune (25%), Chennai (21%), Delhi-NCR (6%), Mumbai (5%), Kochi (1%).

However, job postings shrunk in Kolkata (-16%), Jaipur (-17%), and Baroda (-18%) in May 2021 compared to the same month last year.

Nature of jobs

Except for entry-level jobs that saw a dip in demand by -2%, top management professionals witnessed a growth of 20%, mid-senior professionals and intermediate level witnessed a narrow 1% positive month-on-month growth in May 2021.

Hiring demand for senior management professionals remains neutral, the report said.

Online hiring for top management level personnel with experience of more than 16 years witnessed a spike of 66% compared to last year, i.e. May 2021 versus May 2020. Those for senior management professionals (11-15 years), mid-senior professionals (7-10 years), and intermediate roles (4-6 years) recorded an increase of 14%, 20%, and 13% year-on-year comparison.

However, job postings for entry-level profiles (0-3 years) have declined by 11% in May 2021 in comparison to May 2020.

 “It is promising to see an improvement in hiring despite the impact of the second wave of the pandemic. Industries and functions have now learned to adapt to the current situation and hence the disruption is lesser in the hiring plans. We are hopeful for quicker restoration of normalcy and accelerated hiring scenario,” said Sekhar Garisa, CEO, monster.com.

Hiring sentiment

Despite this improvement in hiring activity in the white-collar employee segment in May, employment has been falling continuously in the broader economy. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), employment has been falling continuously since January this year.

It fell by 25 lakh in February, 1 lakh in March, 74 lakh in April and 153 lakh in May, taking the total loss in employment in the four months to 2.53 crore.

Only in the past seven days did the 30-day moving average of unemployment levels start rising, possibly an indication of the restrictions easing in different states.