Foundit (formerly called Monster APAC and Middle East), a talent platform, found that a rise in active job postings from the production and manufacturing industry and the oil and gas sector contributed to an overall 5% month-on-month increase in the entire white-collar space in February.
While the production and manufacturing space posted a 14% m-o-m jump in the number of job postings, the oil and gas sector saw a 12% m-o-m increase. But those double-digit gains were pulled down by a 16% dip in the printing and packaging-related jobs and hurt further by a 14% drop in import and export centric jobs.
Even the agro-based industries saw a 7% decline in the number of active jobs, the study showed.
Despite growing macroeconomic challenges, there was a surge in economic activity in India as domestic enterprises concentrated on accelerating their growth story, the report said. Sekhar Garisa, CEO, foundit, said, “The tech industry, despite a few setbacks, remains the single largest employer of fresh talent and women. They have been instrumental in leading the post-pandemic recovery and will continue to drive the growth engine forward.” However, the printing and packaging sectors have witnessed a significant slowdown due to undersupply and high input costs, with a steep rise in the cost of raw materials and logistics.
Whereas, the import and export sectors have been impacted due to a slowdown in global demand due to rising inflation and a recessionary outlook.
The tracker also showed a resurgence in the job market for entry-level positions, primarily because of the placement season across campuses. That also may have helped register a marginal increase, of 1%, in the total e-recruitment activity year-on-year. Overall, the demand for entry-level job seekers was high in February, with close to 42,000 active jobs available for freshers, indicating a 9% increase in job activity.
As companies moved beyond the metro and Tier 1 cities, set up bases in Tier 2 cities, the smaller towns witnessed a robust growth of 6%, with cities like Coimbatore adding 9%, Chandigarh seeing a 7% increase, Vadodara witnessing a climb of 6% and Ahmedabad registering a 5% growth. Coimbatore, among the top Tier 2 cities, showed the maximum increase m-o-m in sectors like real estate (30%), BPO (19%), and production and manufacturing (16%).