Hiring demand has witnessed a 6% year-on-year growth in March as the economy rebounded after the debilitating impact of Covid-19 across the board.

Online recruitment activity in March exceeded the year-ago level in 11 out of the 13 cities monitored by the Monster Employment Index (MEI).

Mumbai continued to be the biggest job market registering 21% growth in hiring momentum on a y-o-y basis, closely followed by Coimbatore, which showed a 20% increase.

A marginal dip of 2.4% was witnessed in month-on-month hiring activity, owing to the appraisal season, but the index remained positive from an annual perspective as recruitment activity continued across a broad range of sectors. All the metros registered double-digit growth on an annual basis.

Hiring demand in banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) led to growth in the sector driven by fintech and crypto boom. BFSI hiring was up 37%, followed by telecom/ISP, which saw a 17% rise, and hiring in production and manufacturing increased 16%. Job opportunities rebounded for the hospitality & travel sectors, which witnessed an increase of 11% year on year (YoY).

However, engineering, cement, construction, and iron/ steel sector witnessed a decline of 20% YoY. This sector has seen the sharpest deceleration since April 2020. The pace of growth moderated further for media and entertainment, which saw a decline of 16% and FMCG, food & packaged food was down 13%, according to MEI data.

In terms of functions, IT-hardware & software, human resources and administration along with finance and accounts jobs marked double-digit growth in all metros. Hiring for top management employees has seen the highest surge with an increase of 34%, followed by mid-senior level, which saw an increase of 22%. Hiring for intermediate level was up 20% and that for senior-level increased 13%. Entry-level jobs witnessed 8% growth on the back of campus hiring peaking in the January-March quarter.

Commenting on job trends for March 2022, Sekhar Garisa, CEO, Monster.com (a Quess company), said, “Sectors such as banking and telecom have undoubtedly contributed to the overall revitalisation of employment generation in the country. It is also encouraging to see a substantial rise in business activity across tier-II cities given that smaller cities have historically feathered the adverse effects of the pandemic crisis with a surplus talent pool to boot. As India Inc. continues to adopt the hybrid and back-to-office work models, we hope to see a continued recovery and a step forward to normalcy in the coming months.”

Demand for talent has been surging after the waning of the second wave of Covid-19 that struck in April last year. However, June onwards, as the impact started to weaken, India Inc has been hiring in good numbers. The momentum has continued into 2022 as well, with February marking a 7% y-o-y surge in hiring numbers. February figures were up 3% on a month-on-month basis, too, from January 2022.

The hiring momentum is likely to remain robust in the coming months as well. A recent report by TeamLease Services showed that hiring intentions of India Inc have improved sequentially with more than 54% of corporates keen on hiring in the April-June quarter versus January-March 2022.

This indicates a rise of four percentage points in hiring sentiments.

Of the 21 sectors reviewed, 16 had indicated keenness to hire talent —which include information and technology where 95% of the employers are keen to hire followed by educational services with 86% of the employers expressing intention to hire. E-commerce and technology start-ups and healthcare and pharmaceuticals were the other front runners in this regard.