After two years of the pandemic, the last quarter proved to be exciting for job seekers as the markets finally opened up. Indians attended more than 30 million interviews during the past three months, up 13.71 per cent over the previous quarter (October-December 21), according to Apna.co, India’s largest jobs and professional networking platform, which spotted promising trends in the Indian job market post-pandemic.
The country has noted a sudden boom of jobs in the last quarter, and Apna has recorded a 42 per cent QoQ growth in its employer base. Due to the second wave of covid last year, sectors such as healthcare, delivery, and e-commerce were booming while other sectors had a fairly low employment rate. Fast forward to Q1 of 2022, sectors like hospitality, beauty and wellness, manufacturing, real estate, and aviation logistics are back in action and have seen a gradual increase in job openings as the markets have started recovering. In fact, Apna recorded an 80 per cent and 30 per cent increase in job openings in the beauty and wellness and hospitality sectors respectively.
According to Apna’s analysis, the IT and logistic sectors had the highest hiring momentum for the rising workforce. Real estate, hospitality, and beauty and wellness had sharp recoveries this year in comparison to the same period a year ago.
“The Indian economy is on an optimistic growth trajectory this last quarter and we are certain that this year, India will finally bounce back completely from the impact of the pandemic,” said Manas Singh, chief business officer, Apna. “Apna will continue being the supporting partner in getting India back to Work this year as well.”
In the last three months, with a massive 141 per cent growth in new users, Apna registered 48 lakh, new professionals, on its platform who have been interviewing for various roles across industries. 46 per cent of these new users preferred the vernacular interface over English to find job opportunities and build their professional networks. In fact, according to the data shared by Apna 45 per cent of its user base was seen interacting in communities and building their network.
March logged in the maximum activity from both employers and professionals in the quarter gone by.
Northern India had an inclination towards tele-callers, computer operators, and security guard roles, however people in the southern parts of the country preferred jobs roles like business development and logistics. Eastern India users applied for delivery and sales, while professionals from the west were on the lookout for opportunities in the back office, finance, driver and retail.
Telecaller, computer operator and, back-office have consistently been the top categories in all regions.
Apna’s report also records the changing user interest in jobs across categories. For example, user interest increased by 44 per cent for business development, 39 per cent for sales and fieldwork and 22 per cent for delivery persons. It increased by 19 per cent for back-office roles, 16 per cent for computer operators, 14 per cent for engineering (across functions) while 11 per cent increase for human resources and cooks/chefs and bakers.
Roles such as ward helpers (60 per cent), refrigerator technicians (57 per cent), chemical engineers (35 per cent), welders (32 per cent), turner fitter (19.96), draftsmen (14 per cent) witnessed an increase in applications in comparison to last quarter.
Even though 50 per cent of the interviews took place in the top metros including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata, Interviews in tier II cities have increased by 30 per cent from the last quarter.
Apna quarter report notes that graduates followed by users with educational qualification under 12th and 10th gave maximum interviews in the last quarter. Apna app has continued providing easy access to users, in terms of comprehension, connectivity and convenience offering services in Hindi and English.
While India has started moving out for work, the trend for WFH (work from home) jobs remains significant. In the last quarter, Apna noted a 2 per cent increase in people applying for remote jobs.
In another motivating update, with a plethora of job opportunities this year, the demand for freshers also increased this year in comparison to the same time last year.
Apna’s analysis also highlights increased participation by women in the workforce this quarter as they applied for a variety of roles. They gave more than 1 crore interviews, a 20 per cent increase in comparison to last quarter. Apart from the traditional roles, women also applied for roles such as delivery person, security guards, drivers, chefs/bakers, IT support, civil engineers, fitness instructors etc.
Apna also noted a 96 per cent increase in app installs in comparison to the same time last year. The firm recently partnered with Vi, with the aim of targeting the youth of Bharat to help them provide the right job, providing users on Vi with priority access to India’s largest job listing. This initiative will increase the chance of interview opportunities, at no cost.
Apna is scaling at a rapid pace and has further expanded to 26 cities in the last three months alone. The platform is now present in over 70 cities, with more than 22 million users and 200,000 employer partners.
BOX: A post-pandemic quarter analysis by Apna.co:
Beauty & Wellness industries record 80% rise in job openings over last quarter
Highest hiring momentum in logistics and IT
30% QoQ increase in job openings in hospitality sector
13.71% QoQ increase in interviews
42% QoQ growth in its employer base
141 % growth in new users in the last quarter
Women gave more than 1 crore interviews, a 20% increase in comparison to last quarter.
In comparison to the last quarter, interviews in tier II cities have increased by 30%
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