Monster Employment Index, the most reliable and comprehensive job analysis report by Monster.com, a Quess Company, has published their findings of February 2021. The COVID-19 effects on the Indian hiring and recruitment industry seem to be subsiding in 2021. According to the latest report, job postings picked up in February 2021, with a 6% monthly growth as compared to January 2021.
Monster’s latest report provides insight into the job market across industries, cities, and functions. The data indicates that the employment index has witnessed increased job posting activity in February 2021, with a 6% growth compared to the previous month, January 2021. However, compared to February 2020, the overall index still showcases a significant drop of 15%. The reason being the impact of the pandemic across some of the key sectors.
When it comes to the month-on-month growth, all industries have shown growth with Import/Export (10%), FMCG, Food & Packaged Goods (9%), and Printing & Packaging (9%) witnessing a significant increase in job postings in February 2021 as compared to January 2021. Although several industries are still at a decline compared to February 2020, few industries such as Agro-based and Telecom/ISP have grown by 11% and 10% respectively in February 2021, compared to last year (February 2020).
There is a positive growth trend in job postings in all the major cities. Ahmedabad (17%) and Bangalore (10%) have shown maximum growth compared to January 2021. As far as the yearly trend is concerned, although there is dip in hiring demand in almost all the cities, some of the industries showed notable growth; IT – Hardware, Software in— Hyderabad (+15%), Bangalore (+14%) and Chennai (+11%) saw an uptrend. Among functions, Software, Hardware, Telecom in — Bangalore (+17%), Hyderabad (+15%) and Chennai (+9%) reflected huge demand for professionals.
Further, overall growth in job postings is reflected across all experience levels right from entry level (0 -3 years) to senior level roles (> 15 years’ experience) in February 2021 compared to January 2021. When we compare the findings with that of last year, the demand for Senior professionals with more than 15 years’ experience has grown by 19%.
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Month on Month growth in all industry sectors
As per the report, there has been a 6% growth in job postings across industries in February 2021 compared to January 2021.
Notably, we have seen positive movements in almost all industries with Import / Export (10%), FMCG – Food & Packaged Food (9%), Printing/ Packaging (9%), BPO/ITES (7%), Banking/ Financial Services & Insurance (7%) and Garments/ Textiles/ Leather /Gems & Jewellery (7%) leading the way. Whereas, Engineering , Cement, Construction, Iron/ Steel (-3%) , Home Appliances (-5%) , Retail (-6%) have shown a decline.
As compared to February 2020, February 2021 has seen 15 % less job postings at an overall level. Industries like Travel and Tourism (-62%), Education (-42%), Oil/Gas/Petroleum, Power (-37%) and BPO/ITES (-36%) dragged the index down as they are still significantly down from pre-covid levels. However, we see green shoots in Agro-based industries (11%), Telecom/ISP (10%) have seen positive growth in February 2021 compared to February 2020.
Job growth in cities across the country
A big positive emerging from the latest MEI report is that there has been growth in jobs in all the major cities across the country in the month of February compared to January 2021. Among the cities Ahmedabad (17%), Bangalore (10%), Hyderabad (9%) have shown the maximum growth. Cities such as Delhi/NCR (6%), Jaipur (5%), Coimbatore (4%), Chandigarh (4%) have shown moderate growth.
On the YOY comparison, majority of the cities are still seeing a decline in job postings. Kolkata (-32%), Baroda (-23%), Mumbai (-22%) show the maximum decline in February 2021 compared to February 2020. Bangalore (+4%), Hyderabad (0%), Pune (-7%) show a trend that they have either completely recovered to pre-covid levels or are on the path to complete recovery.
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Steady month on month growth in all functions, Software, Hardware, Telecom back to pre-covid levels
All functions and departments have shown positive growth in February as compared to the previous month. While Software, Hardware, Telecom (7%), HR & Admin (7%), Finance & Accounts (7%) have shown the maximum growth, Hospitality & Travel (2%), Purchase/Logistics/Supply Chain (2%) & Legal (1%) have shown moderate growth.
Compared to February 2020, most of the functions are still trending lower in Feb 2021 with Software, Hardware, Telecom (4%) & Arts/Creative (1%) almost back to pre-covid levels but Healthcare (-30%), Hospitality & Travel (-39%), Customer Service (-40%) still lagging quite significantly .
The growth in month-on-month job postings can be seen across all experience levels. Growth seen at various experience level; Experience level greater than 15 years (7%), 11 – 15 years (3%), 7-10 years (9%), 4-6 years (9 %), 0-3 years (6%) .
In comparison with February 2020, February 2021 data shows that job postings for greater than 15 years’ experience has grown by 19% whereas, job postings for entry level profiles (0 – 3 years) has declined by 21%.
Sekhar Garisa, CEO – Monster.com said, “While shifts in the job market have their ups and downs, with some sectors faring better than others, segments such as IT and telecom, alongside agro-based industries and media & entertainment continue to do well. Travel and tourism still face their set of challenges. However, it has seen improvement from where it was during the onset of the pandemic. With the COVID vaccine rollout being initiated and the nation gears up to be workplace-ready, we can hope for improvements and new opportunities to open up in the coming months.”
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