Hiring in November declines 28% but IT sector sees robust recruitment numbers

The hiring activity in November 2020 declined by 28% on a year-on-year, although sectors such as IT, medical, healthcare, pharma continued to see good recruitment numbers. Pawan Goyal, chief business officer, Naukri.com attributed the fall to the impact of the festive season

However, hiring in hospitality, travel, retail, accounting, finance, insurance sectors were weak; the demand in travel, hospitality and teaching/education remained subdued. At 10% month-on-month (m-o-m), the IT-software sector reported robust hiring numbers in November. The medical/healthcare sector also grew by 4% during the period. Hiring in other key sectors such as BFSI declined 3%, telecom remained flat with a growth of a mere 1%. The pharma or biotech sector declined by 1%.

However, the decline in hiring was steeper in industries such as insurance (-17%), auto (-17%) and hospitality/travel (-10%) on an m-o-m in November 2020. The demand for professionals in IT and HR/administration roles saw an increase of 10% and 5%, respectively in November versus October.

While Hyderabad and Bengaluru were less impacted given the growing demand for IT professionals, recruitments were a lot more muted in cities such as Mumbai and Delhi. Companies, it would appear were looking for experienced persons –those who had worked for 13-16 years —rather than young professionals who have been employed for a few years