New Delhi: Hit by Covid-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown, India saw a huge decline of 61 per cent in hiring activity in May, the second consecutive month where the hiring activity registered a dip of more than 60 per cent, job portal Naukri.com said on Monday.
The May decline in hiring was led by hotel, restaurant, travel and airlines industries (-91 per cent), followed by retail (-87 per cent), auto/ancillary (-76 per cent), and BFSI (-70 per cent).
"The extension of the lockdown has resulted in a continued decline in hiring activity for the third consecutive month," said Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com.
In a recently conducted survey with recruiters and HR heads, about 39 per cent said that critical hiring is still taking place and we are seeing the same on the site with industries such as pharma, healthcare, insurance and IT-software posting jobs during the lockdown.
"At our end, we are also making all efforts to ensure that hiring and discovery of talent is effortless and under the ‘Step-Up' initiative, have enabled easy access and discovery of laid-off jobseekers to recruiters," Goyal said in a statement.
The job market across cities registered a double-digit dip in hiring of more than 50 per cent, according to ‘The NaukriJobSpeak Index' for May.
Read more:India's economy to contract by 3.2% in fiscal year 2020/21: World Bank
The decline was led by metros wherein Kolkata declined by 68 per cent, followed by Delhi (-67 per cent) and Mumbai (-67 per cent).
There was an across the board decline in hiring at varied experience levels with the entry-level experience bands (0 to 3 years experience) witnessing the sharpest decline of 66 per cent.
A latest survey by naukri.com revealed last last month that at least one in 10 Indian jobseeker confirmed he or she has been laid off and nearly three in 10 jobseekers fear a layoff was imminent.
Out of the 10 per cent of jobseekers who have already been laid off, 15 per cent were from the airlines and e-commerce industry each and around 14 per cent were from the hospitality industry.
Around 13 per cent of the laid-off employees were senior professionals with over 11 years of work experience and were working in either sales (12 per cent), HR and admin (12 per cent), marketing (11 per cent) or operations/supply chain (11 per cent) roles.
While the hiring activity is down by 61 per cent, it is encouraging to see that more than 50 per cent of jobseekers are utilizing the time at hand due to the lockdown for self-development and career advancement, as per the latest Naukri survey conducted with 50,000 jobseekers.
Data science and analytics courses (22 per cent) followed by digital marketing (20 per cent) and finance and risk management (16 per cent) were among the top courses being picked up by jobseekers to up-skill themselves.
Just 5% of India Inc bullish on hiring in Jul-Sep qtr, job outlook bleakest in 15 yrs: Survey
India's job market looks grim with just 5 per cent of companies planning to add more staff in the next three months as corporates gear up for the post-lockdown era with a wait-and-watch policy, a survey said.
According to the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey that covered 695 employers across India, the net employment outlook stood at 5 per cent for the July-September quarter, weakest since the survey began 15 years ago.
The encouraging news, however, is that India features among the top four countries out of 44 nations that projected a positive hiring trend. The other three are Japan, China and Taiwan that have a net employment outlook of 11 per cent, 3 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively, for July to September 2020.
"Corporate India is rationalising its workforce in response to the economic slowdown. It is indeed a wait-and-watch game as organisations are gearing up for the post-lockdown era where they anticipate an upsurge in demand, said Sandeep Gulati, Group Managing Director of ManpowerGroup India.
India is optimistic and the government's stimulus economy package may boost the economic activities across sectors, he said, adding that the government does have its focus on the employment ratio of the country. Both these elements may bring a fresh ray of hope for the Job seekers before the end of this financial year.
Sectors which will lead the job market are likely to be mining and construction, finance, insurance and real estate.
The strongest hiring pace is recorded in the medium-sized organisations followed by the large-sized and small-sized firms, the survey said. From a regional perspective, north and south regions indicate a more positive outlook compared to west and east.
The survey further noted that over the last few months, there has been a transformation of the employment pattern and the current scenario of employment in India is fluid and depends on the demand generation in the new normal.
Employers in 35 of the 43 countries and territories surveyed by ManpowerGroup expect to reduce payrolls in the period up to the end of September 2020, while payroll gains are expected in seven countries and a flat labour market is anticipated in one.
The strongest hiring pace is anticipated in Japan, India, the United States, China and Taiwan, while employers in Singapore, Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru and South Africa forecast the weakest labour markets.
In a comparison with the second quarter of 2020, hiring prospects weaken in 42 of the 43 countries and territories, while no change is reported in one. Employers in all 43 countries and territories report weaker hiring sentiment when compared with this time one year ago.
The survey further noted that the findings for the third quarter of 2020 are likely to reflect the impact of the global health emergency, and may be notably different to previous quarters.
(IANS and PTI Report)
