Better days for jobseekers: Report

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Amid the gloom and doom caused by Covid-19, here comes a piece of good news for job seekers. According to a study, the ‘intent to hire’ of corporate houses is the highest in 15 months in the current quarter. The TeamLease Employment Outlook Report, which studied responses of 700 large, medium and small companies spanning across 21 sectors, said that 38% of the companies that were surveyed have intentions of hiring in the current quarter, reports the Economic Times.

The ‘intent to hire’ in the previous quarter was 34%. That was the time when the second wave was wreaking havoc in India. The figure had crashed to their lowest in 2020.

The average ‘intent to hire’ for the first two-quarters of FY21 was 18%, almost half of what it is now.

TeamLease’s Executive Vice President Rituparna Chakraborty said as people are coming out of the impact of the second wave, the intent to hire has recovered in all segments. She added that companies are being cautious but are adding to the workforce for future growth.

Growth drivers

As per CEOs and Economists, there is a combination of factors that are driving growth in both white-collar jobs as well as blue-collar jobs. Ease in restrictions, rise in consumption and an increase in economic activity are some of the crucial drivers of growth in the intent of hiring.

Dalmia Cement MD Mahendra Singhi said the job market is moving towards significant improvement. He also added that the government’s attempt at ramping up economic activity coupled with the nationwide vaccination drive will lead to an increase in demand, which in turn will lead to a surge in the need for manpower.

Hiring intent: Sector-wise

According to TeamLease’s survey, FMCG, IT, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, educational services, essential retail, manufacturing and infrastructure, e-commerce, tech startups, are some of the sectors where the intent to hire is said to be the highest.

Sectors such as non-essential retail, travel and hospitality, that were battered the most by the pandemic-induced curbs, have also shown a rise in hiring. The maximum bounce back in the hiring activity is seen in tier 1 and tier 2 cities, while rural India saw a small dip in hiring intent. It dropped to 15% from 17% in the last quarter.