Recruiters optimistic for 2021; foresee hiring to recover to pre-Covid levels: survey

With the market recovering gradually, there is optimism among employers as 26 percent of recruiters interviewed expect hiring to rebound to the pre-COVID levels within the next three to six months, while 34 percent opined it may take six months to one year, according to a survey.

The Naukri.com's Hiring Outlook Survey was taken by 1,327 recruiters and consultants across the country.

Naukri.com analysed data points on actions from over one lakh recruiters on the platform to identify hiring trends by industry and for the analysis, the pre-COVID numbers are based on new jobs posted in January and February, and post-COVID numbers are based on new jobs posted in October and November.

The survey further revealed that while industries such as medical or healthcare, IT, BPO/ITES were less impacted, a few sectors such as retail, hospitality, and travel struggled to cope.

It stated that in the initial months of 2020, the overall hiring market started on a positive note with increasing job postings and the incline in hiring was steady until the pandemic impacted the job market.

The impact of COVID-19 was visible right from March, with April and May witnessing a sharp decline of 60 percent in hiring year-on-year, the lowest ever seen on the Naukri platform, it opined.

Steadily, the job market started to revive from June onwards with unlock 1.0, it added.

Though the market is still down by 28 percent year-on-year as per the Naukri JobSpeak index for November, jobseekers, recruiters, and experts are eying sequential recovery to spot the silver lining, it added.

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The pandemic was one such event that no business had predicted. Job economy is directly proportional to the growth of various industries and the impact was clearly visible.

"Factors including an overhaul of the work culture, dependence on digitisation as well as pandemic-led precautions and restrictions contributed to the uptick and downtick in hiring amongst key sectors, Naukri.com Chief Business Officer Pawan Goyal said.

While the IT, BPO or ITES and medical/ healthcare sectors led the hiring this year, some sectors such as hospitality, travel, retail, and auto are seeing sequential revival after a sharp hit because of the pandemic, he said.

Since this year was more about transitions and navigations, we are looking forward to 2021 for sustainable growth in the job market, he added.