Hiring activity has remained stable in India in January 2021, as per Monster Employment Index, a job analysis report by Monster.com, a Quess company.
The report said the index has been stable since November 2020, as hiring activity remained consistent with a neutral trend in the last quarter. However, there has been a year-on-year decline of 18 percent as of January 2021 compared to the previous year due to the impact of the pandemic.
In comparison to January 2020, job postings in some industries have improved, with some doing even better than the pre-COVID-19 levels. Agro-based industries and media/entertainment have grown by 15 percent and 2 percent respectively in January 2021 compared to the same time last year.
On the other hand, Telecom/ ISP job postings have become stable, indicating a zero percent change compared to January 2020. However, telecom roles have witnessed a 13 percent increase in postings in the last three months.
Monster.com CEO Sekhar Garisa said, “While shifts in the job market have their ups and downs, with some sectors faring better than others, segments such as IT and Telecom, alongside Agro-based industries and media and entertainment, continue to do well.”
But Garisa said that travel and tourism still face their set of challenges, though it has improved compared to the peak COVID-19 period.
Jobs stable across sectors
The report said that hardware and software reflected significant demand this month with month-on-month growth of 6 percent in job postings, seen mostly in Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad.
Further, a constant increase in job postings for the home appliances industry is noticed, with 9 percent growth in postings in January 2021, compared to December 2020. But the job postings for the home appliances industry recorded 18 percent decline year on year in January 2021.
Industries such as advertising, market research, public relations, manufacturing, engineering, cement, construction, iron/ steel have also witnessed month-on-month growth of 4 percent each.
With the reopening of travel and reduced restrictions on vehicular movement, travel/tourism, and automobiles sectors have witnessed an increase of 2 percent in job postings.
However, when it comes to year-on-year comparison travel/tourism industry has been the worst hit, at -64 percent.
The Monster Employment Index is a comprehensive analysis of online job posting activity conducted by Monster India. This index does not rely on job postings on the Monster database alone but is based on the real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large, representative selection of online career outlets.