The NaukriJobSpeak Index for May’ 2020, at 910, marks a decline of 61% in hiring activity as compared to May’ 2019 at 2,346, led by the extension of nation-wide lockdown due to the on-going crisis. This is the second consecutive month where the hiring activity has registered a dip of more than 60%.

The May’ 2020 decline in hiring is led by industries like Hotel/Restaurant/Travel/Airlines (-91%), Retail (-87%), Auto/Ancillary (-76%), and BFSI (-70%). The job market across cities registered a double-digit dip in the hiring of more than 50%. The decline was led by metros wherein Kolkata declined by 68% followed by Delhi (-67%) and Mumbai (-67%). There was an across the board decline in hiring at varying experience levels with the entry-level experience bands (0 to 3 yrs exp) witnessing the sharpest decline of 66%.

While the hiring activity is down by 61%, it is encouraging to see that more than 50% of job seekers are utilizing the time at hand due to the lockdown for self-development and career advancement, as per the latest Naukri survey conducted with 50,000 jobseekers. Data Science & Analytics courses (22%) followed by Digital Marketing (20%) and Finance and Risk Management (16%) were amongst the top courses being picked up by jobseekers to up-skill themselves.

Referring to the report, Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com said, “The extension of the lockdown has resulted in a continued decline in hiring activity for the third consecutive month. In a recently conducted survey with recruiters and HR heads, about 39% said that critical hiring is still taking place and we are seeing the same on the site with industries such as Pharma, Healthcare, Insurance, and IT-Software posting jobs during the lockdown. At our end, we are also making all efforts to ensure that hiring and discovery of talent are effortless and under the ‘Step-Up’ initiative, have enabled easy access and discovery of laid-off job seekers to recruiters.”

Hiring Activity Continues To Register a Decline of 61% in May 2020: Survey