Online hiring activity declines for 3rd straight month

Online hiring activity registered a decline for the third consecutive month in August as corporate India adopted a cautious hiring approach owing to a significant increase in merger and acquisitions, says a report.

The Monster Employment Index for India stood at 266 in August, down 5% over the corresponding period last year. On a month-on-month basis, the index has slipped by 0.74%.

"The current ease in hiring activity is indicative of a cautious hiring scenario owing to merger and acquisitions and an increasing demand for skilled candidates," said Abhijeet Mukherjee CEO Monster.com, APAC and Gulf.

Sector-wise, production and manufacturing (up 64%) led the year-on-year growth in August this year followed by retail (up 48%).

"The Indian economy marched at an impressive rate in the first quarter of 2018-19 as also reflected in the positive GDP growth momentum on the back of strong performance of the production and manufacturing sector," Mukherjee said.

Regarding the uptick in retail, Mukherjee said: "the retail sector has shown a phenomenal growth surge which can be attributed to a spurt in online shopping owing to end of season sale and discounts.”

He further noted that "demand for freshers with 0-3 years of experience is on a rise especially for job roles such as HR and admin as well as legal, which re-emphasises the need for proper guidance and training programs for young talent,” he added.

The report noted that online recruitment activity surpassed the year-ago level in nine of the 13 occupation groups monitored by the index and was led by Healthcare (up 21%), HR and admin (up 19%) and finance and account (up 16%).

In terms of cities, Chandigarh (up 17%) and Jaipur (up 4%) were the only cities to register positive growth on the year.

Online hiring activity stumbled further in the five key cities of Hyderabad (down 9%), Bengaluru (down 9%), Chennai (down 6%), Delhi-NCR (down 7%) and Mumbai (down 4%), the report noted.