Indian Job Market Remains Unfazed By Inflation, Hiring Increases By 29%: Indeed Hiring Tracker

Findings from the quarterly hiring tracker released by the world’s #1 job site, Indeed, showcased that despite fears of inflation, jobseekers – by and large – are not adversely affected by inflation as far as their livelihood and expenses are concerned, with six in ten jobseekers saying they are not affected much. In line with the employee sentiment, (89%) employers think inflation will not change the way companies hire and pay employees. 

Indeed’s hiring tracker also indicated a positive job momentum growth with employers increasing hiring by 29% in April to June 2022 (as compared to a 20% increase in the previous quarter). The findings further revealed that 37% of all jobseekers looked for a job or a job change during the quarter, as compared to 46% during the previous quarter. 

Sashi Kumar, Head of Sales, Indeed India said, “Sectors such as IT, healthcare, E-commerce will continue to grow and with the advent of 5G , we will see a sharp rise in telcom jobs as well in the next few quarters. With the rising job market and ever-evolving concept of job, it will be interesting to see how India defines the future of work.”

Impact of inflation on job modes, salaries and increments

As a response to inflation, employers looked at varied engagement modes during the quarter that could help them manage candidate expectations as well as costs such as full time, part time, gig or contractual work. Jobseekers continue to prefer full time work (63%) as opposed to part time employment (26%) or gig/contract employment (11%). However, on the employer side, the difference is less disproportionate with over 19% employers hiring gig workers during the quarter. 

Matching increment expectations seems to be the hardest for employers (27%) among all other benefits to counter inflation. At a 10% salary increment level, which 41% of employers plan to provide to account for inflation, a significant 25% of the jobseekers surveyed seem to agree. The match in employer budgets and jobseeker expectations is weaker at increment levels of 15% and 20%. One in three IT/ITeS sector jobseekers (33%) would like a 20% increment to compensate for inflation.

IT, Healthcare and Metros dominate hiring

IT/ITeS continued to lead all sectors, with 91% of the employers in the sector hiring during the quarter (83% in the previous quarter). This trend is most likely a consequence of the attrition – voluntary and involuntary – the tech sector experienced in recent times. Despite appearing at the bottom of the list, sectors like Design and Development (33%, up from 15%), Operations / Administration (29%, up from 21%), and Accounts and Finance (26%, up from 21%) had an appreciably higher proportion of employers hiring during the quarter.  

Tech roles found favour as the most in-demand for the quarter. Healthcare (86%, up from 51%) and E-commerce (82%, up from 73%) were the other top sectors contributing to the surge in talent demand. 

Metros dominated hiring among cities with hiring activity in Bangalore (93%, up from 87%), Mumbai (87%, up from 77%), and Chennai (82%, up from 71%) exhibited strong growth in hiring as compared to other cities. Chandigarh (59%, up from 39%), which came in last, still showed a substantial increase in hiring over the quarter.