Upcoming Festive Season, Keeps India Inc. Hiring Stable: Monster Employment Index

Following months of hiring fluctuations in the Indian landscape, the white collar environment in India has stabilized on an annual basis, highlights the Monster Employment Index (MEI).

While the Index flattened by 1% month-on-month amidst fears of global recession, inflation and macroeconomic headwinds, several industries driven by demands of digitization and changing consumer sentiments continue to do well.

Industries such as BFSI, Chemicals/ Plastic/ Rubber, Paints, Fertilizer/ Pesticides, and Office Equipment/Automation retained keenness to hire, with the telecom sector in particular on an upswing on account of growing digitization and the much-anticipated rollout of 5G services. Retail has also seen improved job demand on account of the upcoming festive season. Incidentally, Tier 2 cities are now frontrunners in hiring with Coimbatore and Ahmedabad indicating growing demand for talent across segments. Pune posted an astonishing 66% incline for employment opportunities in the BFSI industry, firmly consolidating its place as the fastest growing fintech hub in India.

Across experience levels, the demand for top management exhibited an encouraging 18% incline in hiring activity showcasing the need for leaders to tide companies through fears of growing unstable economic conditions.

Commenting on job trends for the month of July 2022, Sekhar Garisa, CEO - Monster.com, a Quess company said, "After months of uncertainty, the Indian job market has stabilized with hiring demand holding up in July, as anticipated. This is good news at a time when most countries are tightening their belts in fears of an upcoming recession. Retail and Manufacturing are doing very well with consumer spending on the rise and of course, festive hiring in full swing which is only expected to grow further. The supply chain sector has also survived several bottlenecks due to the pandemic and is finally opening up and ramping up their recruitment processes. The demand for skilled candidates in India is continuously growing and in the post pandemic market, acquiring new skills certainly holds a lot of value. For candidates today, being tech adaptive is key irrespective of the segment with every industry adopting digital transformation to stay relevant with the global market. ”

Telecom witnesses an upswing in job openings with high demand for top talent

On a sectoral basis, the Chemicals/ Plastic/ Rubber, Paints, Fertilizer/ Pesticides (+32%) industry, which is expected to attract investments worth Rs 8 lakh crore by 2025, registered maximum annual growth given the growing investments in the speciality chemical sector in India, and the China Plus One’ strategy which has opened up a new world of opportunities for Indian companies. Moreover, there has been high adoption of nanotechnology & nanoparticles and building the sustainable approach for industries such as Chemical.

 The BFSI industry posted an upswing of 25%, continuously propelled by digitization, payment innovations and increased penetration of financial services. Furthermore, with the upcoming rollout of 5G, telecom companies are looking to beef up their workforce with hiring scaling up 15% year on year.

With increased foreign investment and gains in growth of new business and output, segments such as Production and Manufacturing (+14%) continued to incline with the retail sector posting an impressive 10% jump indicating that festive hiring is certainly on the rise. Several sectors also surpassed recruitment records achieved last year with BPO/ITES (+10%), Real Estate (+10%) and Travel and Tourism (+8%) reporting promising numbers.

On the other hand, Indian IT (-6%) continues to make hiring corrections with several organizations laying off employees post excessive appointments from the past year. The Media & Entertainment (-25%) industry also registered a significant slowdown with changing consumer habits and reduction of marketing and advertising spends across industries. Industries such as Engineering, Cement, Construction, Iron/ Steel (-24%) and Shipping/ Marine (-21%) also witnessed a considerable dip in demand for professionals.     

White collar workers high in demand across Tier-2 cities as jobs become location agnostic

8 out of 13 cities monitored by the Index exhibited positive year-on-year growth in the month of July with Mumbai (+20%) registering the highest growth among metropolitan cities. Interestingly, Coimbatore (+15%) and Ahmedabad (+13%) led the charge among tier 2 cities which can be attributed to more and more companies setting up bases in smaller towns to tap local talent. Tier 2 and tier 3 cities are seeing a number of SAAS and product companies. Lower set up costs coupled with great infrastructure, government support and access to talent from good quality institutes have proven to be great determinants in how organizations, particularly startups, are choosing to venture into smaller hubs of India.

Metros such as Hyderabad (+8%), Delhi-NCR (+6%), Chennai (+4%) did well, followed by Pune (+4%) and Kochi (+1%), whereas Jaipur (-1%), Baroda (-2%), Bangalore (-2%) noted a marginal dip. Kolkata (-11%) continued on a downtown trajectory by posting an 11% decline in job posting activity.

As organisations look to reduce marketing spends, demand for professionals across Sales and Comms roles dip this July

As the Indian economy continues to progress on a positive trajectory buoyed by the advent of digital revolution in the BFSI sector, Finance and Accounts (+31%) professionals continue to be in high demand. Roles in this segment are becoming one of the most promising job creators in the country today with a continuous incline in hiring activity in the past year. In an era where organizations are fighting to hire and retain talent, there is much recognition for the need of seasoned HR professionals to better employee experience, training and well-being. Monster.com has noted an encouraging 11% growth in the demand for HR & Admin roles in July 2022.

Hospitality & Travel (+6%) roles also fared well with India reflecting pre pandemic travel sentiments. The newer virus variants have also reported milder hospitalizations and fatality rates further boosting this sentiment.

With more and more companies cutting costs and reducing branding spends, roles across Marketing & Communications (-3%) and Sales & Business Development (-7%) have noted marginal dips. With hiring in Indian IT stabilizing, professionals across Software, Hardware, Telecom (-3%) have been less in demand. Other functions such as Engineering/ Production (-16%), Purchase/ Logistics/ Supply Chain (-14%) and Healthcare (-12%) recorded the highest annual decline in July’22 from the year ago level.