Jobs Outlook May 2020
Enterprises went into the lockdown with uncertainties over return and recovery of business. Different functions across the organizations calibrated to find an alternate equilibrium. Recruitment functions of large and medium enterprises also moderated accordingly. The direction seemed to be to keep the hiring funnel warm and not let it stop entirely. Despite the reduction in overall hiring activity by 30% – 40%, the month of April reported close to 200k active job openings. However further down the lockdown period, the active openings showed a gradual reduction. The total active jobs dropped from 200K in April to 178K by Mid-May and the closing figures hovered at 167K by end of May 2020.
These are jobs from direct employers that are active and accepting applications. The active job postings are tracked and curated from companies’ official job pages on LinkedIn and direct postings on top job boards. This does not account for hiring mandates that could be with recruitment and staffing agencies.
Post Lockdown Lifting
The second half of May, when businesses did a staggered return to work, recorded over 76k active jobs. Contributing to about 46% of total openings for the month of May, the period post lifting of lockdown stands a tad lower in volume than the previous half.
This marginal reduction in numbers is an indication of a near term calibration of hiring plans. Having been in the lockdown for nearly 10 weeks, businesses have garnered sufficient indicators for business performance. Also downstream recruitment activities related to offers and onboardings have noticeably slowed down in this period. With more job requirements currently in WIP state, the need to moderate hiring numbers is driving the current trend.
Job Types
43% of the currently active full time opportunities were published in the second half of the month. In comparison, the percentage of internship and part-time opportunities were higher compared to the first half of the month. This has resulted in full-time opportunities contributing to 84% of postings post lifting of lockdown as against 90% overall. Also a growth in job openings on remote and WFH mode is noticeable. Opportunities posted for internships and gigs, from enterprises, have also shown a gradual growth in public platforms for these formats of engagements.
Jobs by Levels
27% of active jobs in the second half of May are for entry and junior level positions. A sizeable 38% openings are in the mid to mid-senior level jobs. With close to 1700 senior roles and top jobs active in this period, enterprises seem to be keeping up the hiring action across the board.
Jobs by Industries
IT Services opportunities overtook Software Enterprise opportunities in this period. While typically pure IT opportunities always remained ahead of the ITS domain, the current switching is an interesting observation. 36% of active openings in the second half of May are from IT services as against 34% from IT and Software. The BFSI sector came third with 16% of active openings post lifting of lockdown.
Jobs by Functions
Technology and Engineering jobs contributed to 65% of openings post lifting of lockdown as against 68% earlier. Other functions of Sales, Marketing, Business Development and Operations also nearly retained their respective percentages. Despite the reduction in number of active openings the functional mix of opportunities remains the same.
Jobs by Location
The distribution of opportunities among the top 5 Metros nearly remained the same post lifting of lockdown. Barring Bengaluru and Hyderabad which grew by 2% each, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai figures remain the same on their contribution percentage.
Prominent Employers
Some of the prominent IT and IT Services employers with active openings in this period were IBM, Accenture India, Mphasis and Amazon.
A larger reactivation of businesses across industries expected to happen from 1st of June will heat up the hiring activity again. One can expect to see hiring numbers recovering closer to the 200k mark over the next 6 – 8 weeks.
