The unfolding of the rising employment market

Photo: iStock
Photo: iStock

Summary

After a two-year lull, white-collar hiring appears to be back with a bang. Companies with new orders are planning expansions, requiring more hands on board. Mint explains how the employment market is likely to unfold:

After a two-year lull, white-collar hiring appears to be back with a bang. Companies with new orders are planning expansions, requiring more hands on board. Mint explains how the employment market is likely to unfold:

Which companies are recruiting now?

Startups and firms in technology, banking, insurance, telecom, and hospitality are hiring. Hospitality has rebounded since travel has opened up. IT firms, meanwhile, have more orders as enterprises strengthen their digital offerings. The Monster Employment Index (MEI), a monthly analysis of online job posting activity, showed a 6% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in March. Job portal Naukri’s March numbers underline hiring activity beyond tier-1 cities. Firms appear to be hiring in cities like Coimbatore and Kochi. However, MEI’s March data shows engineering, cement, construction, iron, and steel have continued to witness y-o-y declines.

What sort of pay hikes can be expected?

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP stated that Indian companies will give a 9.1% hike in 2022 compared to 8% in 2021. The increments are obviously being driven by the continuing trend of the Great Resignation, particularly when it comes to technology talent. According to Michael Page India’s Talent Trends 2022 report, 86% of Indian employees will be hunting for new career prospects over the next six months. The Deloitte study states that average attrition has increased from 15.8% in 2020 to 19.7% in 2021, with voluntary attrition going up by more than 5% between 2020 and 2021.

Which profiles are in demand currently?

In the tech sector, which has faced the highest resignations, Java, JavaScript, and SQL developers are in demand. As cloud adoption and network security gather prominence, firms are on the look-out for DevOps specialists. Private banks, reeling under record high attrition, are losing their best talent to startups which are poaching fintech experts.

What’re the challenges that recruiters face?

Recruiters are finding it difficult to get the right candidate in cases where the available talent pool for the skill set required is skewed. This is leading to inflated salaries for many profiles. Firms like IBM and Tech Mahindra are trying to recruit from smaller towns and cities. However, two years of work-from-home has provided flexibilities that many are unwilling to give up. Recruiters are told that new hires should be willing to adopt a hybrid work culture but for many, this could mean shifting back to a metro.

How long is it before the hiring stops?

Recruiters say the hiring appetite will reach pre-pandemic levels by June, but after that, the frenzy will ease. The employee churn has started impacting the margins of many large companies. Digital adoption by businesses may impact workforce requirements, too—automation reduces the need for manual labour. Meanwhile, some companies have noticed a reversal of the great resignation. New appointees are heading back to their old employers after realizing the jump was not worth it.

 

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