Hiring demand up 15% in April with recovery in retail sector: Report

Improving business sentiment has boosted the overall hiring demand which witnessed a 15 per cent year-on-year growth in April, led by banking, financial services and insurance sector as well as recovery in the retail sector, a report said on Monday.

India has registered an overall growth of 15 per cent year-on-year and 4 per cent month-on-month in hiring demand as a result of increased positive business sentiment, said the Monster Employment Index (MEI)-- a monthly analysis of online job posting activity carried out by Monster India.

After a prolonged setback induced by the humanitarian crisis, sectors such as production and manufacturing, travel and tourism, import and export, have also shown marked improvement with the first double-digit annual growth in two years, reports MEI.

Retail sector showed remarkable recovery with double-digit growth, a first since the COVID-19 pandemic started receding, the report noted.

Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) continued to remain the fastest recovering sector with a 54 per cent annual growth in hiring, followed by retail that grew 47 per cent annually and then production and manufacturing industry with 35 per cent rise, it said.

While BFSI sector continued to witness a boom in job opportunities, the reopening of brick-and-mortar stores have resulted in a sharp rise in the retail job market, said the report.

Easing of Covid-related curbs have resulted in consumers frequenting recreational centres such as malls, creating a demand for retail talent, MEI said.

Following improvement in supply chain disruptions and global mobility resuming, job growth has been witnessed in import and export (up 29 per cent) and travel and tourism (up 15 per cent) sectors as well, it added.

Besides, the report said that the upcoming 5G roll-out also seems to have spurred demand for jobs in the telecom/internet service industry (up 33 per cent).

Real estate, which exhibited a continuous dip in year-on-year hiring demand since April 2019, saw a dramatic recovery of 26 per cent on the back of improved consumer sentiments amid upward looking market, it observed.

However, media and entertainment industry observed fewer job opportunities (down 17 per cent) since last year, it noted.

Although a marginal dip has been registered in engineering, cement, construction and iron and steel (down 1 per cent), the industry has seen a revival in job activity this month, according to MEI.

According to the data, hiring continued to improve in tier II markets, while tier I kept on moving on a robust growth path, it said.

Mumbai again led all the monitored cities on a yearly basis with a 29 per cent rise in hiring demand, followed by Coimbatore (up 25 per cent), Chennai (up 21 per cent), Bengaluru and Hyderabad (up 20 per cent each), the report said.

Other metro cities like Delhi-NCR, Kolkata and Pune continued to reflect a positive year-on-year growth trend in the range of 6 to 18 per cent, it added.

"The future of the job market is looking healthier by the day. With India achieving a new milestone of touching 100 unicorns, it is only a matter of time before these disruptive companies create further employment across sectors," said Sekhar Garisa, CEO of Monster.com, a Quess company.

The emergence of fintech, edtech and D2C brands have definitely helped stimulate economic recovery at a much faster rate than traditional companies, it noted.

"In the months to come, what will be interesting to see is the emergence of newer job roles that previously didn't exist and the demand for skills that were hitherto unknown to the third industrial revolution worker.

"The aggressive comeback of the retail sector testifies to its resilience and potential as a strong contributor to our GDP. Tech-led innovation across sectors will also ensure continued demand for tech roles across sectors as we consumers increasingly embrace a digital-native lifestyle," he added.