The Monster Employment Index has shown a robust growth in online job opportunities in April ‘15. The 26 percent growth is evidence to a progressively growing employment market. The 62 percent increase in Production & Manufacturing opportunities is encouraging and is quite a symbolic change with the government’s efforts towards creating growth story for India. With the impetus on Make in India, the ultimate goal is to boost employment and our index has been showing perceptible signs of positive momentum reinforcing the government’s agenda.” saidSanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India/Middle-East/South East Asia/Hong Kong).

Industry Year-over-year Trends: Of the 27 industry sectors monitored by the Index, online recruitment activity exceeded the year-ago level in 14 industry groups.

·         Production and Manufacturing (up 62 percent) saw dramatic growth in opportunities from the year-ago this month despite a marginal one percent growth month-on-month. The Index reading for the series which stands at 146 in April 2015 was much below the baseline of 100 during the corresponding period a year ago. Clearly, online hiring activity has exhibited significant growth in the last 12 months

·         Online recruitment activity in Automotive/ Ancillaries /Tyres (up three percent) sector exceeded the year-ago level this month following a seven percent drop in March 2015. The pace of growth in the sector slowed in early 2013 and has been unsteady since. However, there are signs of revival in the past few months. The sector has recorded positive three-month growth rates consistently since December 2014 

·         IT - Hardware, Software (up 48 percent); BPO/ITES (up 39 percent); and Banking/ Financial Services, Insurance (up 42 percent) continue to be among the top hiring sectors, year-on-year. This month the Retail (up 41 percent) sector also pumped up. The annual growth momentum improved 26 percentage points. The sector also registered a 24 percent growth in opportunities month-on-month; the steepest among all sectors

·         Engineering, Cement, Construction, Iron/ Steel (up 11 percent) registered the first double-digit annual growth since August 2014. Hiring activity in the sector is treading a positive growth path more recently. Available online opportunity in the sector was 16 percent above January 2015

·         Shipping/Marine (down 43 percent) followed by Oil/ Gas/ Petroleum, Power (down 33 percent) exhibit the steepest year-on-year decline among all industry sectors

Occupation Year-over-year Trends: 12 of the 13 occupation groups monitored by the Index exhibited improved online demand trend this month. 

·         Online demand for Arts/Creative professionals registered the maximum growth year-on-year among all occupation groups yet again. Demand for the group picked up in May 2014 and has been robust ever since. This month there was a 22 percent growth in opportunities for the group vis-à-vis January 2015

·         Online demand for Sales & Business Development professionals spiked. The group witnessed a 15 percentage point’s improvement in long-term growth momentum from 23 percent in March 2015 to 38 percent in April 2015. Marketing & Communications (up 17 percent) professionals, on the other hand, registered slight moderation in the pace of growth between March and April 2015

·         Online hiring for Customer Service (up 13 percent); and Engineering /Production (up 14 percent) has revived. Each of these sectors has been charting successive positive growth month-on-month and well as year-on-year growth for the past two months. Demand for Legal (up two percent) personnel exceeded the year-ago level following two successive drops in February and March 2015

·         Recruitment for Purchase/ Logistics/ Supply Chain sledged by 12 percent following marginal positive growth the previous month. This is also the only group to register a negative annual growth this month.

Geographic year-over-year Trends: All 13 cities monitored by the Index exhibited positive year-on-year growth even this month

·         Baroda (up 43 percent) and Kochi (up 42 percent) once again led all monitored cities charting the steepest growth in online recruitment year-on. The growth momentum continues to improve

·         Among major cities, Mumbai (up 23 percent); and Bangalore (up 22 percent) were the top growing. Bangalore witnessed a 20 percentage point increase in year-on growth rate between March and April 2015. Between January and April 2015, available opportunities increased by 32 percent in Bangalore. The growth in Bangalore is driven primarily by growth in IT - Hardware, Software; BPO/ITES; Automotive/Ancillaries/Tyres; and Banking/Financial Services, Insurance sectors. Mumbai saw steep growth in Banking/Financial Services, Insurance jobs from the corresponding period a year ago

·         Chandigarh charting a 14 percent growth on the year saw the most restrained hiring activity among all monitored cities