Hiring activity in India picked up pace to register 30% year-on-year growth at the end of September, with an 18 percentage points climb as compared to August 2020, according to LinkedIn’s latest findings. Findings show that hiring continues to improve, competition for jobs is easing, and the digital divide is narrowing, suggesting a recovery in hiring for the non-tech sectors.
Competition for jobs remains the same as of August 2020, at 30% higher as compared to last year. However, after nearly doubling in the middle of 2020, the applications per job dropped down 1.3x in August and stayed at a similar level in September. “Compared to pre-COVID, we still see that job seekers who are currently in the badly affected sectors (such as Recreation & Travel) are 4.2 times more likely to look for jobs in a different sector, compared to pre-COVID. But this stress has abated from June 2020, where the likelihood was as high as 6.8 times. Similarly, the stress for the Retail sector has reduced from 2.4 times to 1.1 times. There is not much change in the other sectors,” the report states.
Earlier this year, during the height of COVID-19 lockdowns, those without digital skills were more affected by the hiring dips compared to those with disruptive digital skills (such as AI and Robotics). Recovery was also faster for disruptive digital talent, but in recent months, this gap has started to narrow, from over 20 percentage points difference in April and May, to 2 percentage points difference in September. This possibly reflects the recovery of non-tech sectors, the report adds.
As economic activity resumed across the globe, 43% job seekers in India searched for opportunities in the United States, making it the most sought-after destination in October. With its immigration friendly policies, Canada appears to be the next choice for job seekers in India, although search interest was less than half at 18%. Great Britain (17%), UAE (10%) and Australia (3%) complete the rest of the top-5 list of global destinations, while Singapore was a close sixth with 2% searches, reveals data from job site Indeed.
In return, the United States (17%) along with UAE (17%) emerged as the top destinations from where India attracts talent, followed by Great Britain (5%), Canada (5%) and Singapore (4%). At 16%, India also leads amongst the countries where people search for jobs in the US, followed by Canada (8%), Puerto Rico (7%), Great Britain (6%) and Mexico (5%).
Search activity from India for jobs in the US was highest in 2018, peaking at 72% in December 2018. The year 2019 saw a steady decline in searches. Comparisons show a 63% decline in searches in December 2019 over the same month in the previous year. While overall search momentum was lowest in 2020, behaviour shows a 44% increase in search activity in October 2020 over the same month in the previous year.
Technical roles dominated the most searched for jobs from India in the US, with the top-5 as follows: Full Stack Developer (3%); Java Developer (2.5%); Development Ops Engineer (2%); Software Engineer (2%); Front End Developer (2%).