Hiring activity in India has touched an all-time high in July 2021, indicating a strong revival of economic growth and a sustained recovery from the impact of COVID-19 on business, according to the latest Naukri JobSpeak report. The country’s premier index on hiring trends grew by 11% in July’21 vs June’21, to touch 2,625, the highest it has ever been, including the pre-COVID timeline. The Indian job market has witnessed sequential growth for the second month in a row, with a 15% rise in June’21, after a pandemic-linked decline in April and May’21. 

Jobs in the IT sector grow by 18% 

As businesses continue to ride the wave of digitization, the IT-Software/Software Services sector maintained its steady, upward growth with an 18% increase in July’21 when compared to June 21. This demonstrates that enterprises are actively leading their recovery efforts and driving growth with digital transformation at the centre. In June’21, this sector had grown past the pre-pandemic levels in June’19 by as much as 52%. The month-on-month (MOM) sequential growth of jobs in the IT-Software / Software Services sector has been very encouraging at 11% in June’21 and 14% in May’21. 

Sustained recovery across most sectors contributes to 11% growth

Almost all sectors registered positive growth in July ‘21, contributing to the 11% month-on-month surge in hiring activity, bringing cheer to job seekers. Sectors that were severely hit by the movement restrictions during the pandemic continued to show growth in hiring for the second month in a row, including Hotels/Restaurants/Airlines/Travel (+36%) and Retail (+17%). Hiring activity in Accounting/Taxation (+27%), FMCG (+17%), Banking/Financial Services (+13%) and Education/Teaching (+8%) also saw positive sequential upswing during the same period. The Pharma/Biotech/Clinical Research sector saw a marginal drop of 5% in jobs while the Media/Dotcom/Entertainment sector dropped by 15%  in July’21.

Region wise growth in hiring activity

Reflecting the growing importance of digital transformation of businesses, prominent IT hubs such as  Bengaluru (+17%), Hyderabad (+16%) and Pune (+13%) witnessed double-digit growth in hiring during July’21 vs June’21. India’s megacities Delhi/NCR (+13%) and Mumbai (+10%) also kept up with similar growth, while hiring in Chennai and Kolkata grew at 10% and 4% respectively. Among the smaller cities, Coimbatore (+24%) and Jaipur (+11%) clocked positive growth while Ahmedabad (-3%) was the only city to record negative numbers in July’21.

July ‘21 records higher demand for jobs across all functional areas

While IT-Software roles have always enjoyed high demand and grew 16% in July ‘21 vs. June ‘21, most functional areas continued to recover and build on the positive growth shown in June ‘21. Sectors like Hospitality (+44%) and Travel (+42%) bounced back in July’21 and Sales/BD (+15%), HR/Administration (+11%) and Accounts/Finance (+10%) also saw a sequential rise in hiring activity in the last one month. The Naukri JobSpeak index for July’21 reports 9% and 4% growth in the Banking/Insurance and Teaching/Education roles respectively. Hiring in the Marketing/Advertising/MR/PR (+4%) domain also increased while Pharma/Biotech roles showed a marginal 3% degrowth July’21 vs June’21.

Commenting on the report, Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com said, “July ‘21 has provided conclusive proof of the revival of hiring activity in the country, after a setback in April and May ‘21. Not only has it increased by 11% in this month, but the Naukri JobSpeak Index has reached an all-time high in July ‘21, even surpassing pre-COVID levels. The most noteworthy and consistent growth over the last few months belongs to the IT/ITES sector and the tech functional area, which has stayed relatively insular to the effects of the pandemic. This demonstrates that digital transformation of Indian businesses is well underway and central to recovery efforts after the pandemic.”

Also, hiring activity doubled (+108%)  in July’21 compared to July ‘20, indicating that businesses were more prepared and recovered faster from the effect of the second COVID wave as against their response to the first wave in 2020.