As far as job market is concerned, the worst is behind us for now: Indeed India MD

The job market in India has seen a big decline following the Coronavirus outbreak. On the one hand, there have been job losses, and, on the other, new jobs have seen a dip.

Sashi Kumar, MD of jobs portal Indeed India, however, says “the worst could be behind us for now”.

In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Kumar said that while there was a significant dip in the number of new postings in April and May, recovery is being seen from June onwards.

Compared to a 70 percent year-on-year (YoY) dip in job postings in May 2020, Kumar said there is a 49 percent YoY dip as of July 3.

In June 2020, there was a 51 percent dip in job postings compared to the same period previous year. The trend in job postings is a real-time measure of labour market activity.

“Recovery will continue through July. If things are under control as far as the pandemic is concerned, we will see a further improvement in August and September,” he added.

Though the nationwide lockdown has forced both job-seekers and companies to increasingly move online, the hiring numbers are far lower than last year’s. Indeed data shows that hiring activity in India has fallen (49 percent), compared to the United Kingdom (-60 percent), Ireland
(-49 percent) Mexico (-61 percent), and a few countries in Europe.

Interest in remote working

Jobs roles are moving remote and India could see a prolonged phase of work from home, said Kumar. There is an increase in search for terms like ‘remote’, ‘work from home’, and related phrases.

Searches for remote work have increased by over 443 percent as a share of all searches on Indeed India since February 2020. Job postings for remote work and work from home have also seen an increase of 168 percent from February 2020 to May 2020.

Is anyone hiring?

Some sectors are, says Kumar. Cyber security, software development, sales and marketing, education and instruction, and, to some extent, industrial engineering and retail fall in this category.

“There is no hiring freeze across the board. This is because some sectors are faring well than others. There is hiring in the healthcare sector but not everyone would be skilled for the roles on offer,” he added.

Owing to rising remote working, cybersecurity jobs are on the rise. Indeed data showed that there was a 6 percent increase in cybersecurity job postings while job searches for these roles grew 30 percent.

“Hopefully, the onset of the festive season will help boost economic activity. This would translate into more jobs being available,” he hoped.

Ever since the lockdown was announced on March 25, sectors like aviation, hospitality, high-street retail and travel/tourism have seen the biggest impact.

Industry data showed that almost 30 million net number of jobs have been lost since April 2020. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data said that while 122 million jobs were lost in April 2020 due to the lockdown, 21 million resurfaced in May. In June, over 70 million jobs resurfaced.

As a result, by June, of the 122 million jobs that were lost, 91 million bounced back. Against an average employment of 404 million in 2019-20, June 2020 employment was 374 million, according to CMIE.