As the Indian economy continues to recover and open up post-pandemic, recruitment activity flattened by 3% across industry segments, reveals the Monster Employment Index. 

While festive demand is ongoing, jobs in India are expected to rebound in the coming quarter with positive workforce sentiments, as per Monster.com.

The Index saw a decline this month, with a 2% month-on-month dip exhibiting a sluggish growth rate this month. However, several industries continued to post positive growth trends as the Indian economy continues to recover and open up post-pandemic.

Thanks to the rise of digital innovation in line with Indian Agriculture 4.0, agro-based industries saw a 6% incline in hiring activity. Key drivers in the space were revolution with AI, automation, blockchain, and drone tech.

As per the Index, industries such as BFSI (up 20%), Chemicals (up 14%), Real Estate (9%), Telecom/ISP (9%), and Travel (up 3%) continue to do well. Retail (up 5%) too has fared well with a rise in hiring activity in light of the ongoing festive season.

Interestingly, with 14% increase, NGO/Social Services also saw a considerable spike in hiring activity, while Import/Export (up 19%) hiring rose given the spike in merchandise import over the month of August.

On the other hand, Shipping/Marine (down 24%), Media & Entertainment (down 19%), and Engineering/Cement/Construction (down 18%) continued to chart maximum annual decline in hiring activity indicating lowered demand for professionals in these segments. 

While the IT industry (down 8%) saw a hiring dip due to ongoing start-up layoffs, great resignations, and variable pay-out trends in the sector, BPO/ITES (down 4%) saw a similar dip which could be attributed to reduced hiring across metro cities. Education (down 10%) also noted a fall given the decline in hiring across the EdTech industry. Sectors such as Home Appliances (down 17%), Garments/Textiles (down 10%), and Production/Manufacturing (down 3%) exhibited negative growth patterns. While this indicates falling demand for white collar jobs, festive hiring sentiments remain high and tend to see more demand across temp, blue collar, and gig roles.                

Hiring for white collar professionals 

With a 13% increase, Coimbatore led the chart among 13 cities monitored by the Index, followed by Mumbai, 11%. Coimbatore and Mumbai is among the six cities showcased positive job demand during August.

Mumbai (up 11%) was the strongest annual gainer among major metro-markets while Ahmedabad (up 9%) reflected a relatively encouraging trend driven by major sectors like Retail, BFSI and Advertising. Hyderabad (up 3%) witnessed positive annual growth while hiring in Delhi-NCR and Pune stayed status-quo in August 2022.

Chennai (down 4%), Kochi (down 2%), Jaipur (down 2%) saw a marginal dip in recruitment activity, Bangalore (down 8%), Chandigarh (down 8%), Baroda (down 10%) and Kolkata (down 11%) registered a substantial annual fall owing to stagnant hiring across several industries.

Roles in demand

In terms of functions, HR & Admin roles are more in demand during August as companies aim to improve L&D, employee engagement activities. In line with the rising demand for talent in the BFSI industry, professionals in Finance & Accounts (up 27%) exhibited maximum annual growth in the month of August 2022, similar to past trends. HR & Admin (up 15%) and Hospitality & Travel (up 3%) roles continue to be in high demand as well indicating a greater need for professionals in respective sectors. Interestingly, Arts & Creative (up 6%) which reflected a constant dip in the last months, recorded an all-time high on account of increased demand for creatives such as graphic and interior designers.

Steepest annual decline

Among all monitored functions, engineering/ production (down 20%) continued to exhibit the steepest annual decline, followed by customer service (down 15%) and purchase/ logistics/ supply chain (down 13%) also saw a huge dip in August this year as compared to the corresponding period in 2021. Moreover, healthcare (down 12%), sales & business development (down 10%), marketing & communications (down 8%), software, hardware, telecom (down 7%) saw consequent annual decline.