Online hiring activity falls for 2nd consecutive month in May

Online hiring declined for the second consecutive month in May, but sectors like e-commerce, manufacturing and automotive registered a significant growth in their recruitment activity.

The Monster Employment Index (MEI) for the month of May stood at 242, down two points from April and registering a decline of 27 over the corresponding period a year ago.

The online recruitment activities have seen a decline of 25 percentage points from a robust 52 in January this year.

"The MEI reveals that the online hiring sentiment is on a slow paced growth. This hiring downturn can be attributed to domino effect caused by a global slowdown," Monster.com India Managing Director Sanjay Modi said.

Of the 27 industry sectors monitored by the Index, 24 registered an increased e-recruitment activity.

Charting the highest growth figures, printing and packaging industry is leading the rung with 67 growth in May from year ago. The sector has been witnessing a steep double-digit annual growth rates since February 2016.

Interestingly, the e-commerce sector, which is currently under economic scrutiny, witnessed a 35 year-on-year growth, one percentage point higher than in April 2016, indicating that the sector is moving in a positive direction with steady increase in hiring activity over the months.

Meanwhile, online demand increased for 12 occupation groups out of the 13 monitored by the Index.

The online demand for engineering professionals surged in May as well. The year-on-year growth rate paced up from 39 in April 2016 to 47 last month.

E-recruitment activity increased in all 13 cities monitored by the Index. Chandigarh (up 47 ) led all monitored cities charting the steepest growth year-on-year.

Among tier I cities, Chennai followed by Bengaluru and Hyderabad registered the steepest growth from year ago and also ranked among the top growth cities.