Job postings continue to remain muted sequentially in Nov: Report

Even as the job posting activity remained neutral sequentially in November as economic activity recovers, tier-II cities show positive hiring sentiment, according to a report.

According to the Monster Employment Index, job posting activity remained neutral in November this year compared to October.

However, hiring demand across industries witnessed a nine per cent jump year-on-year in the previous month, mainly aided by a surge in the economic activities after the second wave of COVID-19, the report said.

With back-to-office trends in full swing, the office equipment/ automation (21 per cent) industry continued to witness the highest month-on-month growth in job postings on increased investment in office automation due to the reopening of workplaces. It is followed by telecom/ISP (14 per cent), printing/packaging (7 per cent), garments/ textiles/ leather, gems and jewellery (4 per cent), oil/ gas/ petroleum, power (3 per cent) and travel and tourism (3 per cent) industries, it said.

Industries such as retail, banking/ financial services, insurance, education, logistics, courier/ freight/ transportation stabilised during November witnessing muted growth, said the report.

On the other hand, shipping/ marine (-9 per cent), IT-hardware & software (-3 per cent), FMCG, food and packaged food (-2 per cent), and healthcare, biotechnology and life sciences, pharmaceuticals (-2 per cent) industries accounted for a slight month-on-month decline in hiring intent, it said.

Among cities, Kolkata (2 per cent) witnessed a slight month-on-month uptick in job posting activity in November, followed by Coimbatore and Jaipur showing stabilised growth.

It was also noted that the production and manufacturing industry saw a 19 per cent month-on-month uptick in Kolkata.

However, major cities such as Pune (-4 per cent), Bengaluru (-3 per cent), Delhi-NCR (-3 per cent), Chennai (-2 per cent), Hyderabad (-2 per cent) and Mumbai (-1 per cent) noted a monthly decline in hiring activity.

Cities such as Kochi (-4 per cent), Chandigarh (-3 per cent), Ahmedabad (-2 per cent) and Baroda (-1 per cent) also witnessed falling intent to hire, the report said.

"While hiring activity has stabilised this month, we continue to see promising sparks of recovery especially in tier-II cities such as Coimbatore and Kolkata, which are faring considerably well after months of decline.

"With more and more companies aiming to return to physical offices in the new year and employ hybrid workforce models, there has been huge investment in office automation as well," said Sekhar Garisa, CEO of Monster.com, a Quess company.

Moreover, salary trends in November indicate positive remuneration sentiments for the Indian IT industry, reflecting the increasing scope and growing demand for professionals in the sector, he noted.

The Monster Employment Index is a comprehensive analysis of online job posting activity conducted by Monster India every month.

Meanwhile, data from the Index indicated that there was positive growth in the hiring activity across experience levels, with hiring for top management professionals (over 16 years) witnessing an uptick of two per cent, senior level (11-15 years) an increase of 1 per cent, mid-senior level (7-10 years) an increase of 3 per cent.

Intermediate level (4-6 years) and entry-level roles (0-3 years) witnessed a marginal growth of 1 per cent in November compared to the previous month, the report added.