Firms step up recruitment as business activity resumes

 

After witnessing slowdown in April and May when economic activity had almost come to a standstill amid a lethal second wave, hiring activity picked up pace in the month of June. The good news is that the recovery has been broad-based across sectors, cities, roles and experience bands.

Retail, hospitality and travel industries which have been the worst hit with the pandemic also witnessed sharp increase in hiring activity during the month. The month witnessed improvement in hiring across several key industries as well as functional areas, which is an indication of resilience and recovery of hiring activity across the country, especially after a decline of 15% in April 2021 and then flattening out in May, primarily due to the pandemic.

According to findings from naukri.com there has been a substantial recovery of hiring activity compared to May in hotels, restaurants, airlines and travel which was up 87% and 57% in retail as pandemic-related restrictions on movement were relaxed. After a recent slump, recovery came in sectors such as insurance which saw a surge of 38% in hiring, BFSI was up 29% and pharma and biotech increased 22%. Other sectors like FMCG at 22% rise, education and teaching at 15% and BPO/ITES at 14%, also saw positive sequential upswing in June versus May.

The IT sector, which has remained insulated from the impact of the pandemic given the digital transformation of businesses over the last one year saw an increase of 5% in hiring compared to May. However, on a comparison with June 2019, there has been a significant surge of 52%.

Unlocking of major markets and resumption of commercial activities boosted hiring activity to a massive 32% increase over May 2021, according to data from Xpheno, a Bengaluru-based specialist staffing firm. The count of jobs that were active, refreshed and seen accepting applicants in June 2021 was 2.7 lakh, as against 2.05 lakh in May and 2 lakh in April 2021.

Pawan Goyal, chief business officer, naukri.com said a double-digit growth in hiring activity in almost all regions after near negative growth last month indicates uniform revival of the job market. “In what may be seen as a response to growth and rebuilding by Indian organisations, hiring across all functional areas improved significantly. Also, hiring for all experience bands increased as organisations began to augment their employee base to handle growth,” he said.

To be sure, the 0-3 years band saw a growth of 22% against a negative growth in May 2021. Similarly, hiring for senior professionals also remained in a good space with hiring for professionals in 8-12 years band up by 8%, 13-16 years experience band rising 11%, and band with more than 16 years of experience increased by 10%.

Kamal Karanth, co-founder, Xpheno said June 2021 could well be the starting point of a buoyancy expected for rest of the year. “With more coordinated lockdowns and unlocking actions expected as we go, the hiring action should be expected to continue its series of peaks and troughs for a while longer,” he said.

Full-time opportunities showed a strong recovery in June after staying low in May and a sharp drop in April in the face of the second wave impact. Full-time openings grew by 33% over the previous month and contributed to 93% of the active job opportunities in June 2021.

According to HR consultants, despite the risk of a third wave, the growing pace of vaccination and upcoming festive season is keeping them hopeful that the hiring momentum will continue for the rest of the year, and the signs of normalcy are already visible. Anand Sundar Raj, CEO (general staffing and allied services), Innov source said that open demands have already reached pre-covid levels and with the festive season about to start there is high positive uptick.

“Clients from across sectors have shared their hiring plan both for their regular and seasonal hiring. Traditionally, hiring demand peaks between July and December coinciding with festival season. We are expecting an all time high demand from sectors like – e-commerce, logistics and warehouse, BFSI, agriculture and industrials,” Raj said.