May hiring activity dips 4% on high inflation, cautious recruiter sentiments

The overall hiring activity dipped 4% in May 2022 as compared to April 2022, primarily due to cautious recruiter sentiments and inflation driving up costs globally, shows the online career platform Monster India's Monster Employment Index.

However, year-on-year basis, the job market grew 9% in May, showing a steady recovery for the second straight month in FY23. The Monster India index tracks online job posting activity on its platform on the monthly basis. Online job posting activity for finance and accounts (up 49%) and HR and admin (up 36%) roles led the growth pie and are likely to continue growing in the coming months, shows the report.

Fresher hiring (0-3 years) picked up pace in May 2022 and was able to come to par with the demand for top management (over 16 years), which witnessed maximum demand consecutively for several months. "Both experience levels, along with intermediate (4-6 years) roles noted a surge of 19% on an annual basis," says the report, adding that demand for freshers is only going to increase in the coming months.

Travel and tourism, which have been the laggard sectors for many months now, primarily due to the huge impact of Covid-induced restrictions, saw a spike of 27% for the third consecutive month.

Among cities, Coimbatore (up 27%) tops the chart again, surpassing growth numbers seen by top metro cities in India, followed by Mumbai (up 26%). Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad marked a 16% annual growth in job opportunities, followed by Chennai (up 15%), Pune (up 13%), and Ahmedabad (up 15%), Bangalore (up 9%) and Kolkata (up 6%). The BFSI industry saw the highest spike in Pune and Delhi-NCR.

Among Tier-2 cities, Baroda, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Kolkata reflected positive annual demand of 2 to 12%, shows the survey, adding that jobs prospects in these cities indicate bullish prospects.

Among all occupation groups, purchase or logistics or supply chain observed a marginal dip of 2% YoY, with mild fluctuations in hiring numbers over the past year. Jobs in export and import industries, on the back of the Covid pandemic behind us and supply chains back in place, grew 47% YoY, the highest ever increase recorded over the past year for this segment.

Digitisation, cashless payments and digital money, job postings in BFSI (up 38%) stayed steady, followed closely by telecom/ISP (up 36%), which could see more jobs on the back of the anticipated 5G rollout in India.

The data shows Tier 1 cities continuing to fuel growth, while Tier-2 cities are still making their way to post-pandemic recovery.

Online hiring for customer service (up 16%) roles witnessed a double-digit rise, annually, for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. Software, hardware, telecom (up 13%), marketing and communications (up 11%), engineering or production (up 4%), healthcare (up 3%) and arts/creative (up 5%) saw a positive demand trend when compared to May 2020.

Besides, sectors such as office equipment/automation (up 101%), and real estate (up 25%) have seen positive growth patterns. Retail, at an 11% YoY rise in job activity, continues to hire with moderate growth this month. Media and entertainment saw a decline in job activity at 19%, indicating a long way toward post-pandemic recovery. Engineering, cement, construction, and iron/steel were also down at 9% in job hiring activity, while shipping/marine noted the first annual dip on a YoY basis at 4%.

Sector-wise, telecom, BFSI, and import/export exhibited optimistic job trends. A total of 22 out of 27 industries monitored showed an uptick in demand as compared to the year-ago level.