Hiring Slows: Fewer full-time job offers in December

Having seen a good pick-up after July, the number of full-time job opportunities on offer seems to be falling. Companies drawing up their strategies seem to see some moderation in business prospects and have pared their workforce requirements.

Full-time jobs registered a 33% month-on-month decline in December to 1,62,000 over November, data from Xpheno, a Bengaluru-based specialist staffing firm, show. This is the first time in three months that the active job count has dropped below the 200,000 mark; the lowest active jobs number was seen in June and July at 132,000 and 142,000, respectively.

Nonetheless, Kamal Karanth, co-founder, Xpheno, points out more enterprises have extended work-from-home and remote working for 2021 opening up room for employment opportunities.Companies are augmenting their seasonal workforce so as to better manage any business spikes. This is noticeable in the gradual upward movement in the part-time, contract and internship opportunity segments since August 2020. In December, the active openings for internships registered a 13% growth. “Since the festive hiring will continue for the next few weeks we can expect an increase in the number of short-term and temporary jobs,” Karanth said.

Overall, after staying nearly constant in October and November, the active jobs count dipped in December 2020. More hiring was seen in the insurance sector, up 45% versus November, understandable given the heavy rush to secure health and businesses in the post-Covid era. The auto & ancillary sector registered an increase of 33% while the rise in the BFSI space was 18%. In pharma and biotech, the increase was 28%; in FMCG, it was up 21% and IT-software saw an 11% rise, according to Naukri.com.

Pawan Goyal, chief business officer, Naukri.com, said 2020 was challenging and hiring across key industries bore the brunt of the pandemic. While hiring in the April-June period was down 56% compared with 2019, the subsequent quarters showed a steady recovery. “The hiring in October-December is down only 18% year-on-year, led by IT, BPO/ITeS, medical and pharma. Key sectors like hospitality, travel, auto and retail are still bouncing back, and the sequential numbers reassure us of robust recoveries in 2021,” Goyal said.

Meanwhile, the trend of fewer opportunities being generated in the top five metro locations persisted with their contribution to the total active job counts at a low 28%, down from the earlier highs of 51% in September. The extended WFH and remote working has been gradually moving jobs away from the metros and towards the tier 2 cities and towns.

Findings from Monster.com show postings in Jaipur and Coimbatore were up 4% each in December, while those in Mumbai increased by a minor 1%, compared with November. All major cities have seen a decline compared with 2019 – Bengaluru saw postings decline by 1%, Hyderabad by 2%, and Chandigarh by 5%. Mumbai saw a sharp decline of 23%, Baroda by 24% and Kolkata by 35%, which is the maximum drop compared with December 2019.

Sekhar Garisa, CEO, Monster.com, said there was room for optimism given the various government and industrial initiatives taken to revive the economy. “The positive developments relating to the vaccine give us hope we will see more sectors recovering,” Garisa added.