11% hiring growth in Q1FY’22: Indeed India Hiring Tracker

• IT, Financial Services, BPO/ITeS drive demand
• Sales roles outpace  operational roles
• Women driving demand for remote work

National, 02 August 2021: Indeed, the world’s #1 job site, today released the latest India Hiring Tracker mapping quarterly job market activity to June 2021.

Overall, hiring increased by 11% over the previous quarter, with standout growth in Information Technology (61%), Financial Services (48%), and BPO/ITeS (47%) as the job market begins showing signs of recovery from the Second Wave.

Large businesses continued to dominate hiring activity (59% of employers), while hiring by mid-sized businesses saw a decline (38%). Overall, fewer surveyed employers were hiring  between  April-June compared to the previous quarter (42% vs 64%) with Bangalore continuing to lead hiring (56%) and Kolkata replacing Chennai at the bottom of the hiring list (34%).

Other key findings from the report include:

Booming Sales and Marketing demand

Receding Covid cases and partial lockdowns  in Q1 FY’22 allowed businesses to operate, focussing employers on roles driving sales and revenue – a shift from the focus on operational roles to stabilize business operations in Q4FY’21.

Roles such as Sales Coordinator (83% of all employer respondents), Relationship Manager (77%), Digital Marketer (69%), UI/UX Designer (61%),, and Quality Analyst (53%) were the most  in demand.

Mental Health and employee development challenges

The widespread impacts of the Second Wave resulted in understaffed teams and increased employee burnout. However, 76% of the jobseekers surveyed did not receive Covid-related benefits/compensation packages or mental health support.

Appraisal plans were also impacted. 70% of employees said that they did not receive any promotion or pay increase this quarter, with only 11% of employers promoting or offering salary increases.

Mismatched return-to-office expectations

Employers and employees aren’t on the same page when it comes to future work models. Employers preferred a hybrid work model (42%) to remote work (35%), while jobseekers favoured remote working (46%) over a hybrid approach (29%).

51% of women compared to 29% of men said they wanted to continue working from home, while 52% of senior management preferred working from home, compared to 36% of middle level and 31% of junior level employees.

Changing  jobseeker aspirations

The number of job seekers and job changers increased slightly over the previous quarter (70% vs 68%), with 52% at entry level, 44% mid-level and 18% senior level. Jobseeker priorities also shifted, with 25% saying salary was their primary focus, followed by career growth (19%), learning opportunities/challenges/responsibilities (16%), and company reputation (14%).

Startup-SME jobs were the top picks for post-graduates (44%) and mid-level job seekers (42%). While preference for roles in MNCs/Large companies (43%) was marginally more widespread during Q1FY’22 than during the previous quarter (38%).

Sashi Kumar, Head of Sales, Indeed India said, “As businesses continue to find a rhythm of working through multiple pandemic challenges, the tracker reflects the resilience of India’s labour market. With hiring activity seeing a month-on-month increase, it was interesting to see businesses pivot their hiring priorities from operation roles to sales roles. It’s also clear that paying attention to employee expectations will enable them to thrive, so ongoing conversations around wellbeing and hybrid work are vital.”

About the survey:

This survey was conducted by Valuvox on behalf of Indeed among 1500 employees and 1200 businesses across 9 cities in the month June 2021.