Hiring demand across industries witnessed a 9% jump year-on-year in the month of November 2021 aided by a surge in the economic activities post the second wave of Covid-19.

 
According to Monster Employment Index, the most reliable and comprehensive job analysis report by Monster.com, a Quess Company, an 8% successive incline was noted in hiring demand in the last six months. However, job posting activity remained neutral in November this year compared to October.

 
In November 2021, the Office Equipment/Automation industry continued to show sustained momentum due to increased investments in automation and reopening of physical offices, demonstrating a 21% incline in job posting activity. The Production and Manufacturing industry also noted 19% growth in the city of Kolkata, which saw a revival with a 2% monthly incline. Moreover, Hospitality & Travel (2%) functions witnessed improvement, owing to the increasing travel intent across the country (Nov 2021 Vs Oct 2021).

 
A yearly comparison shows that metro cities consistently top the charts with the highest hiring demand in November 2021, while Tier-2 cities such as Coimbatore (13%), Kolkata (10%), and Baroda (4%) reflected positive sentiments. The demand for freshers/entry-level professionals witnessed a considerable yearly uptick – the highest yet – with a growth of 6% (Nov 2021 Vs Nov 2020).

 
With back-to-office trends in full swing, the Office Equipment/Automation (21%) industry continued to witnessed the highest month-on-month growth in job postings owing to increased investment in office automation due to the reopening of workplaces, followed by Telecom/ISP (14%), Printing/Packaging (7%), Garments/ Textiles/ Leather, Gems & Jewellery (4%), Oil/ Gas/ Petroleum, Power (3%), and Travel and Tourism (3%) industries. Industries such as Retail, Banking/ Financial Services, Insurance, Education, Logistic, Courier/ Freight/ Transportation stabilized in the month of November 2021 with muted growth. On the other hand, Shipping/Marine (-9%), IT-Hardware, Software (-3%), FMCG, Food & Packaged Food (-2%), and Healthcare, Bio Technology & Life Sciences, Pharmaceuticals (-2%) industries accounted for a slight monthly decline in hiring intent (Nov 2021 Vs Oct 2021).
 
On a year-on-year basis, online hiring demand grew in 20 of the 27 Industries monitored by the Index. Office equipment/Automation (69%) noted a significant rise in e-recruitment activity due to the shift to physical offices in contrast to lockdown-induced remote working last year, followed by Telecom/ISP (52%), Printing/ Packaging (40%), Chemicals/ Plastic/ Rubber, Paints, Fertilizer/ Pesticides (24%), BFSI (24%), and IT-Hardware, Software (22%) industries. However, Retail (-19%) indicated a steep decline in job posting activity as the segment continues to reopen and recover to normalcy, as did Government/PSU/Defence (-8%), Engineering, Cement, Construction, Iron/ Steel (-7%), Education (-6%), and Media & Entertainment (-5%). The Travel and Tourism (-1%) industry witnessed only a slight decline in hiring activity as the intent to travel continues to grow at a steady pace, in contrast to previous months which indicated a steep decline (Nov 2021 Vs Nov 2020).
 

 
Among cities, Kolkata (2%) witnessed a slight uptick in job posting activity in November 2021, followed by Coimbatore and Jaipur showing stabilized growth (Nov 2021 vs Oct 2021). It is also notable that Production and Manufacturing industry saw 19% month-on-month uptick in Kolkata. However, major cities such as Pune (-4%), Bangalore (-3%), Delhi-NCR (-3%), Chennai (-2%), Hyderabad (-2%), and Mumbai (-1%) noted a monthly decline in hiring activity. Cities such as Kochi (-4%), Chandigarh (-3%), Ahmedabad (-2%), and Baroda (-1%) also witnessed falling intent to hire.
 
In November 2021, metro cities continued to dominate the hiring space due to positive hybrid workforce sentiments, marking the highest yearly growth in Bangalore (23%), Pune (20%), Hyderabad (20%), Chennai (19%), Coimbatore (13%), Mumbai (11%) and Delhi-NCR (10%). The BFSI and IT-Hardware, Software industries marked significant growth in these metros. Interestingly, Kolkata (10%) saw positive increase in job activity, despite being adversely affected in the past few months, followed by Baroda (4%). This could be credited to a post-festival uptrend, where larger numbers are hired to the formal workforce, as compared to gig hiring during the festive season. On a year-on-year basis, Jaipur (-11%) indicated the steepest decline, followed by Chandigarh (-10%), Ahmedabad (-4%), and Kochi (-1%).

Positively, hiring for professionals in Hospitality & Travel (2%) noted maximum uptick month-on-month in November 2021, followed by functions Finance & Accounts (2%), HR & Admin (2%), and Marketing & Communications (1%). This could be on account of increased travel and tourism activities across the country, contributing to an increase in demand for professionals in Hospitality industry. While Sales & Business Development, and Legal witnessed muted monthly growth, functions such as Senior Management (-7%), Arts/Creative (-3%), Health Care (-2%), Software, Hardware, Telecom (-2%), Purchase/ Logistics/ Supply Chain (-2%), and Customer Service (-1%) witnessed the lowest growth (Nov 2021 Vs Oct 2021).
 
In November 2021, professionals in Software, Hardware, Telecom (29%), Senior Management (29%), HR & Admin (20%) and Finance and Accounts (18%) were in huge demand, while verticals such as Customer Service (-11%), Hospitality & Travel (-12%) and Sales & Business Development (-19%), Marketing & Communications (-1%), Engineering/ Production (-3%), Arts/Creative (-4%) and Legal (-8%) saw an annual decline (Nov 2021 Vs Nov 2020).
 
Freshers demand at an all-time high witnessing 6% year-on-year growth
Data from the Index indicates that there was positive growth in hiring activity across experience levels, with hiring for Top management professionals (over 16 years) witnessing an uptick of 2%, Senior level (11-15 years) an increase of 1%, Mid-Senior level (7-10 years) an increase of 3%, Intermediate level (4-6 years) and Entry-level roles (0-3 years) a marginal growth of 1% respectively (Nov 2021 s Oct 2021).
 
On a year-on-year basis, hiring for Entry level professionals saw considerable growth of 6% in November 2021 – a promising outlook for freshers – witnessing an all-time high. Top Management (71%), Senior level (22%), Mid-Senior level (42%), and Intermediate level (29%) continued to show positive demand in November 2021 as compared to November 2020.
 
Salary trends for IT-Hardware, Software industry indicate positive outlook across all experience levels in November 2021
For the month of November 2021, salary trends monitored by Monster.com indicated that the IT-Hardware, Software industry fared well for all experience levels. For Entry-level (0-3 years) professionals, Advertising, PR, MR, Event Management roles are highly paid, followed by IT- Hardware, Software and BPO/ITES, while Intermediate level (4-6 years) professionals gained higher in IT- Hardware, Software, BFSI, and BPO/ITES industries. Further, Mid-Senior level (7-10 years) roles averaged a greater salary in BFSI, closely followed by IT-Hardware, Software, and FMCG industries.
 

Sekhar Garisa, CEO - Monster.com, a Quess company said, "While hiring activity has stabilized this month, we continue to see promising sparks of recovery especially in Tier-2 cities such as Coimbatore and Kolkata which are faring considerably well after months of decline. With more and more companies aiming to return to physical offices in the new year and employ hybrid workforce models, there has been huge investment in office automation as well. Moreover, salary trends in November indicate positive remuneration sentiments for the Indian IT industry, reflecting the increasing scope and growing demand for professionals in the sector. In line with the same, we have associated with Microsoft to launch a virtual career fair 'Velocity' to cater to the demand of cloud professionals in India."