After a bit of a dip in December, jobs market gathers pace again

After a bit of a dip in December, 2020, the momentum in the job market picked up in January with total opportunities surging nearly 50% over the December 2020 count to reach 2,65,000.

The good news is that full-time opportunities were as high as 2,40,000, up sharply over December, according to data sourced from Xpheno, a Bengaluru-based specialist staffing firm. “With more mainstream business activities resuming and the vaccine campaigns on, the numbers for February and March 2021 are expected to remain healthy, if not rise further,” Kamal Karanth, co-founder, Xpheno said. Hiring for freshers is back with a bang. After registering drops of 7% and 39% in November and December respectively, entry level openings at 1,10,000 in January registered an 83% growth over December 2020.

Findings from TeamLease EdTech showed 15% of all employers across India intend to hire freshers between February and April. Founder and CEO Shantanu Rooj said the intents for the February-April, period have improved by 2.5 times since the lockdown. “As the economy opens up, this is expected to go up further,” Rooj said.

Moreover, with remote working gaining traction the increase in openings for contract jobs was up 67% and that for internships by 22%. Karanth, observed that with more enterprises expected to stick with the work-from-home and remote working models, the growth in full-time remote job opportunities should be expected.

Part-time openings in January have been the highest for FY21 so far, albeit on a small base. In addition, the number of openings for full-time remote jobs moved up to 7,000 in January, up 40% over December, 2020.

The bulk of the hiring is taking place in the IT, telecom and BFSI sectors with demand for talent very subdued in the other sectors .The IT/Telecom sector posted a 2% uptick in talent demand followed by a 1% uptick in the BFSI sector, according to RecruiteX, a monthly recruitment index from TimesJobs.

Sanjay Goyal, Business head of TimesJobs and TechGig said the IT sector is steadily building up its talent pool. “With the vaccination in full swing and the substantial announcements for healthcare, infrastructure and skill development in the Union Budget 2021-22, we anticipate the demand for talent will increase significantly in the coming months,” Goyal said.

Professionals that were in high demand during the month include those specialising in quality and process control, front office work, administration, marketing and advertising. The quality and process control demand increased the most with 14% growth in January, versus a decline of 8% in December. Front office and administration surged 7%, while jobs in marketing and advertising were up 6%.