The Naukri JobSpeak Index for September’20, at 1755, marks an improvement of 24% in hiring activity as compared to August’20, at 1413. 

Naukri JobSpeak Index

The 24% M-O-M growth is being propelled by industries like Pharma (+44%), FMCG (+43%), Education/Teaching (+41%) and IT (+32%). Further opening up of the economy with unlock measures & increased mobility has led to an improvement in hiring activities in industries like Real Estate (+44%), Auto/Ancillary (+29%) and Hospitality/Travel (+48%) versus August’20. Key industries such as BPO/ITES (+29%) & Banking/Financial services (+33%) continue to post robust growth sequentially. 

Metros which were reeling under various lockdown measures earlier have posted strong double-digit growth in the month of Sept’20 Vs Aug’ 20 with Pune (+26%) leading the pack followed by Hyderabad & Chennai (+24%) while Bangalore is lagging with a 14% growth.  Tier-2 cities like Ahmedabad (34%), Chandigarh (+39%) and Jaipur (36%) have also seen a significant uptick in the hiring activities. Hiring grew across the board in terms of experience bands with the demand for mid-management professionals (8-12 yrs) up by 27% versus Aug’ 20 followed by 0-3 yrs exp (25%), 4-7 yrs exp (23%), 13-16 yrs exp (24%) and >16 yrs exp by 19%.  

Referring to the report, Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com said, “The last quarter has seen significant uptick in the hiring activity, growing at 14% compared to 8% decline in AMJ’ 20. While the hiring is yet to touch last year levels and is down by 23% in Sept’20 versus Sept’19 but this is also a marked recovery from a 35%-60% decline that we have witnessed in the last few months. Businesses that are leveraging digital channels for dissemination & consumption of goods and services are thriving and will continue to do so as we imbibe social distancing norms in our daily lives. With increased mobility and focus on health, we are hopeful that hiring activity will further improve in sectors like Travel, Hospitality, Medical/ Healthcare, Insurance and Financial services.”

Y-O-Y Hiring Deep-dive | September’20 versus September’19

Hiring activity in the month of Sept’ 20 declined by 23% versus last year. However, the declining trajectory has become less steep with improvement in every subsequent month. 

In a clear sign of recovery, we see year on year growth rates turning positive in certain industries like IT-Hardware & Networking (+26%) and Chemical/Petrochemicals (+14%) in Sep’20 versus last year. Also, industries such as Pharma/Biotech (-4%), Insurance (-6%) and FMCG (-11%) are at the verge of turning positive if the recovery continues in subsequent months.  

Inspite of monthly recovery, on a Y-O-Y basis Hospitality/ Travel (-71%) and Retail (-50%), Oil & Gas/Power (-45%), Accounting/Taxation/Finance (-34%) and IT-Software (-32%) sectors continue to be the most impacted. 

Similarly, hiring in metros continued to decline more than the national average (30% vs 23%) versus Sept’19 with Mumbai (-35%), Delhi NCR (-33%) and Bengaluru (-33%) leading the decline while Jaipur (13%) and Chandigarh (11%) have turned positive. Recruitment across the board declined at varied experience levels with the entry-level experience bands (0 to 3 yrs exp) witnessing the sharpest decline of 29% while the leadership roles (>16 yrs exp) saw the least impact and declined by 15% in September’20 as compared to last year same time.