Job search portal Monster.com has published the Monster Employment Index, a comprehensive job analysis report that provides insight into the job market across industries, cities, and functions for the year 2020.

According to the data,  while there is no change in the data for November and December 2020, there was a drop of 15% in the overall index when compared to 2019, on account of the pandemic. Yet, job postings in the year improved in comparison to December 2019, with some industries returning to pre-COVID levels.

Despite the impact of the pandemic, certain industries witnessed substantial growth. These industries include telecom (7%), media and entertainment (4%), and agro-based (6%) witnessed substantial growth. Trade as well as chemicals industries also experienced growth.

A peek into industry wise growth and decline

Specific to December 2020, industries that witnessed maximum growth in job postings compared to the previous month include import/export (15%), chemicals/plastic/rubber, paints, fertilizer/pesticides (15%), telecom/isp (12%), and printing/packaging (11%). agro-based industries; garments/ textiles/ leather, gems & jewelry; and healthcare, bio-technology & life sciences, pharmaceuticals hlso witnessed month-on-month growth of 7% respectively. Unsurprisingly, home appliances (-10%). retail (-20%) industries experienced the biggest drop compared to Nov-2020.

Owing to the reopening of the economy, industries such as production and manufacturing, oil/gas/petroleum, power, and travel & tourism were able to make slow progress post the pandemic impact. In comparison to November 2020, oil/ gas/ petroleum, power grew by 5%, production and manufacturing grew by 1% and travel and tourism saw a -5% dip. The most impacted industries remain production and manufacturing (-35%), oil/gas/petroleum, power (-38%), and travel & tourism (-64%), with the highest year on year decline due to the pandemic.

Geographic impact and recovery

In comparison to November 2020, job postings in Jaipur (4%), Coimbatore (4%), Chennai (3%), Pune (3%), and Mumbai (1%) witnessed growth, while job postings in Bangalore, Kolkata, and Baroda remained neutral with no shifts compared to the previous month. Chandigarh (-2%), Kochi (-3%) witnessed a decline in job postings during this period. Analysts expect the numbers to improve in the coming months.

Cities witnessing the highest yearly decline include Mumbai (-23%), Baroda (-24%), and Kolkata (-35%). A steady progress to pre-COVID levels was noted across Bangalore (-1%), Hyderabad (-2%), and Chandigarh (-5%).

The verdict on functional performance in 2020

While job roles across hospitality & travel (-12%), finance & accounts (-4%), legal (-6%) continue to face challenges with the lowest growth across functions, compared to November 2020, the gradual reopening of office spaces, brought about a uptick in postings for senior management (6%), and HR & admin (4%), arts/creative (4%) and customer service (1%), software, hardware, telecom (1%). In comparison the previous year, hospitality & travel (-41%),  customer service (-34%), and finance & accounts (-30%) witnessed the biggest decline.

Commenting on the findings, Monster.com’s CEO Sekhar Garisa said, “We continue to see recovery in the job market, as there has been an uptick in the number of job postings across various sectors and functions, despite the challenges. While the impact of the pandemic and recovery has been different for each sector, we are optimistic about the coming quarter given the various government and industrial boosts towards economic recovery. Further, the positive developments towards the vaccine discovery add to the hope that we will see more and more industries opening up and coming out of the pandemic led slump.”