Notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations aligned their hiring to scale up for the operational roles, and sectors like healthcare, e-commerce and financial services led the recruitment activity in January-March 2021, a survey said on Thursday. According to Indeed's India Hiring Tracker Q4 FY21, as many as two-thirds (64 per cent) of all employers surveyed hired talent during the fourth quarter of 2020-21.
Also, 61 per cent of all jobseekers surveyed looked for a job (or change of job) during this period. Although overall hiring activity for the quarter remained robust, the monthly hiring trend did observe a progressive decline (38 per cent in January as against 31 per cent in February compared with 26 per cent in March) with the effects of the second wave of the pandemic. This survey was conducted by Valuevox on behalf of Indeed among 500 employees and 350 businesses across nine cities in March 2021.
Indeed India Head (Sales) Sashi Kumar said, "We saw that consumption continues to be a key driver of economic growth in India in the sectors responsible for driving hiring. Tech skills are absolutely critical in driving India's inclusive recovery, and will continue to be a job market priority." Kumar further noted that the concept of remote work has led to re-ordering of employee priorities where workforce wellbeing is a necessity, not a prerogative.
"Above all, this report signifies that India's job market is resilient and agile, and that talent demand and supply will bounce back as the country fights back and the economy opens up," he said. Moreover, large proportions of job seekers surveyed said they were still looking for their desired job 53 per cent male and 60 per cent female, 50 per cent entry level, 44 per cent mid level and 40 per cent senior level.
As essential business activities were prioritised during the pandemic, organisations aligned their hiring to scale up for the operational roles. The top roles that employers hired for were operational and support roles like team lead, business analyst, content head and service engineer, which contributed to 25 per cent. Technical roles like mobile app developer, CAD/CAM engineer contributed to 18 per cent of the total hiring; and blue-collar roles like delivery personnel, electrician, ITI trainee contributed to 15 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020-21.
Healthcare (82 per cent), e-commerce (69 per cent), and financial services (68 per cent) sectors led the activity. The survey further noted that 90 per cent of the large organisations stepped up their hiring due to elevated consumer demand during this period. Similarly, 70 per cent medium-sized and 78 per cent small businesses hired due to early positive market sentiment." That said, almost 63 per cent of medium-sized and all small-sized organisations surveyed exhibited a lack of confidence in hiring during the next quarter."It indicates that hiring for Q1 FY22 will primarily hinge on 60 per cent of large organisations who expressed medium to high levels of confidence," the survey said.
