Global uncertainties, start-up layoffs flatten hiring in June: Report

The Indian job market showed a 3% growth in hiring, reflecting optimistic trends for the white-collar market, shows the Monster Employment Index (MEI) for June. The overall index, however, flattened by 2% month-on-month amidst global uncertainties and start-up layoffs. But, many segments continued to hire on the back of the green revolution in India. The analysis is based on job listings posted on the online recruitment platform.

Industries such as BFSI, chemical/fertilisers, travel & tourism, production or manufacturing exhibited positive job trends. Across cities, metros had maximum jobs, in line with previous months indicating post-pandemic job recovery.

The demand for top executives with over 15 years of experience was least impacted amid the ongoing downsizing in the industry. It shows maximum growth in hiring at 15% on a year-on-year basis and 3% on a quarterly basis, shows the report.

Sekhar Garisa, CEO - Monster.com, a Quess company says tech-enabled industries seem to have garnered more growth. “While concerns over startup layoffs continue to linger, it is important to note that they represent a very small portion of the overall job pie,” says Garisa.

On sectoral bases, BFSI shows maximum demand, with a 28% rise in job postings as compared to the previous year. The chemicals or plastic or rubber, paints, fertiliser or pesticides (up 24%) industry also saw a rise in momentum, driven by increased demand for green jobs. Travel & tourism (up 25%) continues to beat the pandemic amid free travel.

Real estate (up 17%), production and manufacturing (up 16%), import and export (up 14%), BPO/ITES (up 12%), telecom/ISP (up 12%), showed positive growth in jobs listing but retail (up 1%) grew marginally.

IT- hardware, software (down 2%) saw a marginal dip in hiring activity amid layoffs. Media and entertainment (down 26%) and engineering, cement, construction, and iron or steel (down 20%) saw a continuous dip in job demand. Shipping or marine (down 10%), healthcare, bio-tech and pharma (down 4%), and education (down 4%) also failed to generate enough jobs.

On the hiring of white-collar professionals, the Monster report says 10 out of 13 cities monitored by the Index showed positive job demand in June, with Mumbai (up 23%) leading the pack. Coimbatore (up 19%) led the chart among Tier-2 markets. Hyderabad (up 15%), Delhi-NCR (up 13%), and Ahmedabad (up 11%) also showed double-digit growth.

Meanwhile, as per a private think tank CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy), India registered the biggest fall in jobs during a non-lockdown month in June as jobs fell by a massive 13 million from 404 million in May to 390 million in June

While about 13 million lost jobs during the month, the count of the unemployed increased by only 3 million, writes Mahesh Vyas, managing director at CMIE. "The rest exited the labour markets. As a result, the labour force shrunk by 10 million in June 2022," he says.