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Monster Employment Index 2020 Report: The Indian job market sees recovery as 2020 nears closure

Mumbai: Monster Employment Index, the most reliable and comprehensive job analysis report has just published its latest findings for 2020. The report shows that the year started positively with job postings in Q1 2020 being 9% higher YoY. However, owing to the pandemic, the opposite has ensued with the year heading to closure 6% lower than last year.

The silver lining is that we have seen significant growth in job postings over the last few months, foreseeing a positive start to 2021. The gradual increase in both the seeker and recruiter activities on the Monster portal is a testament to clear signs of recovery in the job market compared to the COVID lows.

The Monster Employment Index Report 2020, provides insight into the job market of 2020 from January-November 2020, covering the pre-pandemic, pandemic, and recovery periods, across industries, cities, and functions.

Job posting picks up across industries during the recovery period, post-lockdowns

During the lockdown periods of April-July 2020, BPO/ITES (-48%), Banking/Financial Services, Insurance (-48%), Production and Manufacturing (-46%), Travel and Tourism (-76%), and Garments/Textiles/Leather, Gems and Jewellery (-49%) industries were impacted the most, compared to January-March 2020. While, Telecom/ISP (-16%), Advertising, Market Research, Public Relations (-11%), Media & Entertainment (-6%), Printing/Packaging (-13%), Agro-based Industries (-5%)were impacted lesser during this period.

During the recovery period of August-November2020, job posting across industries such as Import/Export (15%). Logistic, Courier/Freight/Transportation (14%), Retail (13%),BPO/ITES – 9%, Garments/Textiles/Leather, Gems & Jewellery (8%) improved in comparison to the lockdown period (April-July 2020).

Furthermore compared to Pre-Covid levels (January – March),Telecom/ISP (-8%), Advertising, Market Research and Public Relations (-11%), Media & Entertainment (-5%), Logistic, Courier/ Freight/ Transportation (-9%), and Agro-based Industries ( 0%)are almost back to pre-COVID-19 levels.

Top industry-wise recovery from COVID lows

Industry Recovery rate
Import/Export 15 %
Logistic, Courier/Freight/Transportation 14 %
Retail 13%
BPO/ITES 9%
Garments/Textiles/Leather, Gems & Jewellery 8%

It is significant to note that, among the industries, Retail has indicated a positive growth of 3% YoY from November-2019 to November-2020, indicating that the industry is showing growth as compared to the same period last year. Job postings for the Retail industry witnessed a spike and have grown 20% in November-2020 compared to October-2020. Banking/Financial Services, Insurance (19%), Home Appliances ((11%), IT – Hardware, Software (9%), and FMCG, Food & Packaged Food (5%) job postings indicated the highest month-on-month growth from October-2020 to November-2020.

Chandigarh and Bangalore among cities indicating maximum recovery, despite being the worst-hit locations

City trends indicate promising recovery of jobs across locations, with postings returning to almost pre-COVID levels. During the lockdowns, April-July 2020, Chandigarh (-27%), Mumbai (-24%), and Bangalore (-20%) were impacted the most. And, Jaipur (+8%), Baroda (+2%), Kolkata (-2%), and Coimbatore (-4%) were the least impacted cities.

From their COVID lows, Chandigarh (17%), Bangalore (14%), Pune (4%), Chennai (4%), and Hyderabad (4%) have shown the maximum recovery during August-November 2020 when compared to the lockdown period. Overall, the cities that are now back to or doing better than pre-COVID levels are Bangalore (-3%), Hyderabad (-5%), Chandigarh (-5%), and Jaipur (-5%).

While job postings in some cities were not impacted much by COVID-19 during the lockdown periods, a comparison of the recovery numbers to the pre-COVID period indicate that Mumbai (-24%), Delhi/NCR (-14%), Kolkata (-44%), Ahmedabad (-15%), and Baroda (-25%) are the worst-hit cities in terms of recovery to pre-COVID-19 levels.

Logistics and Supply Chain, Arts and Creative, and Marketing Communication see a significant recovery

The pandemic had a far-reaching impact on most sectors and industries, as well as the overall job functions. Supply Chain/Logistics/Purchase (+11%), Arts/Creative (4%), Marketing & Communication (3%), Software, Hardware, Telecom (2%), and Engineering/Production (2%) functions bounced back from the lows of COVID during the recovery period. Arts/Creative (-4%), Marketing & Communication (-10%), Software, Hardware & Telecom (-12%), Engineering & Production (-12%) and Healthcare (-15%) were the least impacted during the lockdowns. While, Finance & Accounts, Senior Management, Hospitality& Travel, HR & Admin, and Legal functions were the most impacted by COVID-19. These functions still face the challenge of recovery, post-lockdowns.

Sekhar Garisa, CEO – Monster.com said, “We are definitely seeing improvements in the job market, with promising recovery in industries such as Logistics, Transportation, BPOs, ITES, among others. While job postings were at their highest in Q1’20, the pandemic did have a significant impact on the same. The recovery in the post-lockdown period has been promising, almost at par with pre-Covid-19 levels. We could hope to end this year with job levels at par with what we started the year with, if not better. The surge in jobs and opportunities is an indication that the economy is moving towards recovery. The worst is behind us, and we can look forward to significant growth in the coming quarters.”

Period for the report

The period considered for the MEI data is January-November 2020. The timeline for 2020 is being classified as the Pre-COVID period (Jan-Mar 2020), COVID lockdown period (April-July 2020), and Recovery period (August-November 2020).

About Monster Employment Index:

The Monster Employment Index is a broad and comprehensive analysis of online job posting activity conducted by Monster India. Monster Employment Index was first launched in India in May 2010 and has been collecting and analyzing recruitment related data from global markets such as Gulf, Singapore, Philippines, and Malaysia for over a decade. Monster Employment index does not rely on job postings on the Monster database alone; MEI is based on the real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large, representative selection of online career outlets.

About Monster APAC & Middle East

Monster(a Quess Company), the leading online career and recruitment resource, with its cutting-edge technology provides relevant profiles to employers and jobs to jobseekers across industry verticals, experience levels, and geographies. More than 200 million people have registered on the Monster Worldwide network. Today, with operations in more than 40 countries, Monster provides the widest and most sophisticated job seeking, career management, recruitment, and talent management capabilities globally.

Monster continues its pioneering work of transforming the recruiting industry with advanced technology using intelligent digital, social and mobile solutions, and a vast array of products and services.

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