Aided by a surge in economic activity post the second wave of COVID-19, hiring demand across industries witnessed a 9% jump year-on-year in the month of November 2021, according to the latest Monster Employment Index.

An 8% successive incline was noted in hiring demand in the last six months, however, job posting activity remained neutral in November this year compared to October, says the job analysis report by Monster.com.

In November 2021, the Office Equipment/Automation industry continued to show sustained momentum due to increased investments in automation and reopening of physical offices, demonstrating a 21% incline in job posting activity. The Production and Manufacturing industry also noted 19% growth in the city of Kolkata, which saw a revival with a 2% monthly incline.

Owing to the increasing travel intent across the country, hiring for professionals in Hospitality & Travel (2%) noted maximum uptick month-on-month in November 2021, followed by functions Finance & Accounts (2%), HR & Admin (2%), and Marketing & Communications (1%).

While Sales and Business Development, and Legal witnessed muted monthly growth, functions such as Senior Management (-7%), Arts/Creative (-3%), Health Care (-2%), Software, Hardware, Telecom (-2%), Purchase/ Logistics/ Supply Chain (-2%), and Customer Service (-1%) witnessed the lowest growth (Nov 2021 vs Oct 2021).

A yearly comparison shows that metro cities consistently top the charts with the highest hiring demand in November 2021, while Tier-2 cities such as Coimbatore (13%), Kolkata (10%), and Baroda (4%) reflected positive sentiments.

The demand for freshers/entry-level professionals witnessed a considerable yearly uptick – the highest yet – with a growth of 6% (Nov 2021 vs Nov 2020).

Online hiring is up across most industries

Online hiring demand grew in 20 of the 27 Industries monitored by the Index on a year-on-year basis. Office Equipment/Automation (69%) noted a significant rise in e-recruitment activity due to the shift to physical offices in contrast to lockdown-induced remote working last year, followed by Telecom/ISP (52%), Printing/ Packaging (40%), Chemicals/ Plastic/ Rubber, Paints, Fertilizer/ Pesticides (24%), BFSI (24%), and IT-Hardware, Software (22%) industries.

However, Retail (-19%) indicated a steep decline in job posting activity as the segment continues to reopen and recover to normalcy, as did Government/PSU/Defence (-8%), Engineering, Cement, Construction, Iron/ Steel (-7%), Education (-6%), and Media & Entertainment (-5%). The Travel and Tourism (-1%) industry witnessed only a slight decline in hiring activity as the intent to travel continues to grow at a steady pace, in contrast to previous months which indicated a steep decline (Nov 2021 vs Nov 2020).

“While hiring activity has stabilized this month, we continue to see promising sparks of recovery especially in Tier-2 cities such as Coimbatore and Kolkata which are faring considerably well after months of decline. With more and more companies aiming to return to physical offices in the new year and employ hybrid workforce models, there has been huge investment in office automation as well. Moreover, salary trends in November indicate positive remuneration sentiments for the Indian IT industry, reflecting the increasing scope and growing demand for professionals in the sector,”  said Sekhar Garisa, CEO of Monster.com.