In a year that was characterized by despair, hope, resurgence, and expectations of a return to normal, India’s hiring activity witnessed interesting green shoots. As the economy recovered from the aftermath of two consecutive COVID waves, businesses stabilized and expanded their operations. Propelled by government initiatives like Atmanirbhar Bharat, many industries witnessed rapid growth, creating job opportunities. While the digitization of businesses kept the demand for tech jobs steady, many unique roles emerged.
In 2021, India’s hiring, and talent ecosystem was buzzing with activity. Indeed, the world’s #1 job site reveals the most interesting trends that defined the dynamics of job search this year.
As India returned to normalcy after a long spell of pandemic and lockdowns, Indeed observed a high demand by organizations for unique roles such as Professor, Loan officers, Recruitment managers and Packagers. Data indicates that job postings for the role of ‘professor’ witnessed a massive jump of 2,448% between December 2020 and December 2021. There was a similar interest from job seekers for this role as clicks for ‘’professor’ too saw an increase of 1,576%.
The recovery in economic activity seems to have benefited the BFSI sector too. This reflected growth in postings for jobs such as ‘Credit Manager’ (496%), ‘Loan Officer’ (189%), and ‘Branch Manager’ (186%). Postings for tech jobs such as ‘Senior Software Engineer’ (70%), ‘Software Engineer’ (33%) and ‘Full Stack developer’ (10%) witnessed a steady growth during the same period.
Once the Covid 19 vaccination drive got underway, companies and employees were better prepared to face the challenges posed by the pandemic compared to the previous year. This is reflected in a surge in job seekers’ interest in roles such as ‘Event coordinator’ (715%), ‘Presenter’ (562%), ‘Taxi driver’ (499%), and ‘Customer service supervisor’ (475%). It clearly indicates that people started getting back to the new normal and look beyond the pandemic.
Job postings for roles such as ‘Order Processor’ (-70%), ‘call centre representative’ (-61%), ‘Collection agent’ (-59%), ‘Machine operator’ (-59%) witnessed degrowth during December 2020 and December 2021. Some skilled labour roles such as ‘fitter’ (-55%) and ‘welder’ (-52%) also declined in the same period largely due to COVID restrictions and migration of such talent back to their hometowns.
Indeed also saw a dip in job postings like ground staff’ (-94%), ‘horticulture manager’ (-80%), ‘procurement assistant’ (-75%), ‘floor supervisor’ (-71%) and ‘materials manager’ (-71%) saw significant degrowth between December 2020- December 2021.
In what can be seen as a silver lining, technology organizations increased freshers’ postings and Indeed’s report on Freshers’ hiring indicated that the number of freshers seeking jobs (searches) had seen a 30% YoY increase in October 2021 compared to October 2020. In 2021, most job seekers enthusiastically looked for work portfolios such as software engineers and full-stack developers while other business function roles like sales representatives and business development executives.
While Work from Home, digitization, automation, and lockdown had their merits and challenges for India, the big three cities viz. Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad continued to remain the top cities searched for jobs among the job-finders and jobseekers. Pune and Chennai followed, both have always been centres where hiring and job searches have attracted talent from across the country.
Sashi Kumar, Head of Sales, Indeed India, said “Right now we might have to wait and watch to understand what will be the next big thing for the industry in 2022 and beyond. But, our data shows India Inc’s inclination towards the relevance of tech jobs remains steady. With continued reliance on technological solutions to meet the needs for shopping, remote working, and learning. Some of these trends will continue to rule in 2022.