The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a massive blow to the hirings trend in the last month with the employment rate slipping by a massive 62% as compared to last year, according to the latest Naukri JobSpeak Index. Industries such as hotels, restaurants, travel, and airlines witnessed most job cuts followed by auto/ancillary, retail, and accounting/finance. “The disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact the hiring activity leading to a 62% decline in April 2020. While hotel/ restaurant/ travel/ airlines have been significantly impacted, industries like IT-software/ software services, pharma/ biotech/ clinical research and insurance have been less impacted,” Pawan Goyal, chief business officer, Naukri.com, said.
Across cities, the job market has registered a double-digit slip in employment. While metros led the charge in job declines, Delhi witnessed the biggest hit by 70%, followed by Chennai at 62%, Kolkata and Mumbai at 60% respectively as compared to the same period last year. The employment decline was visible across all board levels, however, entry-level experience bands (0 to 3 years of experience) reported the sharpest decline by 67%. On the other hand, hirings for senior-level executives (4-7 years of experience) saw a dip by 62% and the middle management roles (8-12 years of experience) declined by 55%. Senior management roles (13-16 years of experience) and leadership roles (over 16 years of experience) were also down by 53% and 50% respectively.
While aviation and retail sectors have shown a major slump in hiring activity, sectors such as pharma/ biotech/ clinical research, IT-software/ software services and insurance were less impacted as compared to other sectors in April 2020.
Meanwhile, according to the latest Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data, India’s unemployment rate has skyrocketed to over 23% as of April 5 as against the 6-8% range before the coronavirus pandemic. The unemployment rate was higher in urban areas at 31% and in rural India, it rose to about 20%, indicating that while the outbreak started off as an urban phenomenon, the economic impact is also visible in rural areas.