Hiring demand across industries witnessed a 9% year-on-year jump in the month of November 2021 aided by a surge in the economic activities post the second wave of COVID-19. According to the Monster Employment Index, an 8% successive increase was noted in hiring demand in the last six months. However, job posting activity remained neutral in November this year compared to October.
In November 2021, the Office Equipment/Automation industry continued to show sustained momentum due to increased investments in automation and reopening of physical offices, demonstrating a 21% incline in job posting activity. Moreover, Hospitality & Travel (2%) functions witnessed improvement, owing to the increasing travel intent across the country (Nov 2021 vs Oct 2021).
On a year-on-year basis, online hiring demand grew in 20 of the 27 Industries monitored by the Index. Office Equipment/Automation (69%) noted a significant rise in e-recruitment activity due to the shift to physical offices in contrast to lockdown-induced remote working last year, followed by Telecom/ISP (52%), Printing/ Packaging (40%), Chemicals/ Plastic/ Rubber, Paints, Fertiliser/ Pesticides (24%), BFSI (24%), and IT-Hardware, Software (22%) industries. However, Retail (-19%) indicated a steep decline in job posting activity as the segment continues to reopen and recover to normalcy.
Metro cities continued to dominate the hiring space in November 2021 due to positive hybrid workforce sentiments, marking the highest yearly growth in Bengaluru (23%), Pune (20%), Hyderabad (20%), Chennai (19%), Coimbatore (13%), Mumbai (11%) and Delhi-NCR (10%). The BFSI and IT-Hardware, Software industries saw significant growth in these metros.
In November 2021, professionals in Software, Hardware, Telecom (29%), Senior Management (29%), HR & Admin (20%) and Finance and Accounts (18%) were in huge demand, while verticals such as Customer Service (-11%), Hospitality & Travel (-12%) and Sales & Business Development (-19%), Marketing & Communications (-1%), Engineering/ Production (-3%), Arts/Creative (-4%) and Legal (-8%) saw an annual decline (Nov 2021 vs Nov 2020).
On a year-on-year basis, hiring for Entry level professionals saw considerable growth of 6% in November 2021, witnessing an all-time high. Top Management (71%), Senior level (22%), Mid-Senior level (42%), and Intermediate level (29%) continued to show positive demand in November 2021 as compared to November 2020.
“While hiring activity has stabilised this month, we continue to see promising sparks of recovery especially in Tier-2 cities such as Coimbatore and Kolkata which are faring considerably well after months of decline. With more and more companies aiming to return to physical offices in the new year and employ hybrid workforce models, there has been huge investment in office automation as well. Moreover, salary trends in November indicate positive remuneration sentiments for the Indian IT industry, reflecting the increasing scope and growing demand for professionals in the sector,” said Sekhar Garisa, CEO of Monster.com.