Job posting records 4% rise in May 2021 despite second COVID wave: Report

Despite the second wave of COVID-19, the job market in India is seeing green shoots. There is a 4 per cent year-on-year (YoY) rise in the overall job postings in May 2021, according to the Monster Employment Index, the job analysis report by Monster.com, a Quess Company.

The report showed that compared to April 2021, May showed a growth of 1 per cent. When it comes to hiring the top management professionals, with 16 or more years of work experience, a growth of 66 per cent year-on-year was witnessed in May 2021.

“While April 2021 witnessed a dip in job postings given the onset of the second wave of the pandemic, May 2021 showed green shoots of recovery. IT – Hardware and Software hiring witnessed a year-on-year growth of 67 per cent in Bangalore and 49 per cent in Hyderabad,” said the report.

Among the functions, software, hardware, and telecom indicate growth across all the key cities such as Bangalore (79 per cent), Hyderabad (62 per cent), and Chennai (50 per cent).

Monster.com CEO Sekhar Garisa said, “It is promising to see an improvement in hiring despite the impact of the second wave of the pandemic. Industries and functions have now learned to adapt to the current situation and hence the disruption are lesser in the hiring plans. Some industries have significant tailwinds due to the new normal and are flourishing in the new, dynamic environment.”

Some industries fared better:

A year-on-year (May 2021 versus May 2020) comparison shows hiring in 56 per cent of the industries fared better as compared to the same time last year.

The report said that companies and employers are now better equipped to face the pandemic, despite the effect of the second wave.

Here, IT – Hardware, software (29 per cent), logistic, courier/ freight/ transportation (25 per cent) and telecom/ISP (23 per cent) industries indicated the highest growth in job postings.

However, travel and tourism job postings again showed a year-on-year decline with a 49 per cent decline in May 2021. Education (-31 per cent) and engineering, cement, construction, iron/ steel (-20 per cent) industries also witnessed a decline in hiring activities, year-on-year.

Similar to the last month’s trend regarding experience level-based hiring, month-on-month (May 2021 versus April 2021) growth in job postings was witnessed across most job levels, except for entry-level jobs that saw a dip in demand by -2 per cent.

Top management professionals (20 per cent), mid-senior professionals (1 per cent), and intermediate roles (1 per cent) witnessed positive month-on-month growth. Hiring demand for senior management professionals (0 per cent) remains neutral.

The Monster Employment Index is a broad analysis of online job posting activity conducted by Monster India. Monster Employment Index does not rely on job postings on the Monster database alone but is based on the real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large, representative selection of online career outlets.