2020 wrap-up: Cautious optimism in jobs sector as year comes to a close
Several Indian professionals lost their jobs from April 2020 onwards due to the COVID-19 and allied lockdown impact on the economy. The employment market is crawling back to normalcy, but with caution.
December 29, 2020 / 08:08 AM IST
The coronavirus outbreak had the biggest impact on the jobs sector in the country. Close to 10 million jobs were lost across small, medium and large firms with sectors like travel, hospitality, e-commerce and real estate among the worst hit.
However, ever since the lockdown restrictions eased from July 2020 onwards, there has been a slow revival across sectors. The educational services sector has gained the most with e-learning becoming the new favourite across households.
But, while hiring intent has improved, companies are taking a cautious approach, hiring aggressively only for select roles and limiting numbers for generic roles like sales, marketing and administration.
These are some trends in the sector
- Hiring has gone completely virtual across companies
- Educational services sector is hiring in large numbers while the traditional sector is going slow
- Mass hiring by IT, consulting firms has hit a pause due to COVID-19

Infographics by Ritesh Presswala
M Saraswathy is a business journalist with 10 years of reporting experience. Based in Mumbai, she covers consumer durables, insurance, education and human resources beat for Moneycontrol.