Covid wave hits hiring activity, but not as severe as last April
EXPERTS SEE JOBS BOOM IN VARIOUS SECTORS AFTER THE COVID WAVE EBBS; RETAIL, CLOUD-BASED TECH, ANALYTICS JOBS ARE IN DEMAND
After reviving in September-October 2020, hiring activity dropped in April 2021 as the second Covid wave slowed down the economy. According to Naukri.com, Covid 2.0 has led to a 15 percent sequential decline in hiring in April 2021, but the current impact on the job market is less severe than in April 2020 when the Naukri JobSpeak index declined by 51 percent month-on-month, said Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer.
A year-ago when the pandemic struck, hiring was the last priority as Corporate India was trying to get familiar with the new reality. Yet, there were some sectors that did well during the pandemic and after like agriculture, retail and logistics.
There is no need for despair though. There will be more job creations in various fields. “On a projected based of 4.6 million workforce, a 22-23 percent attrition projection would mean a million job movements are definitely on the cards”, said Kamal Karanth, CEO, Xpheno, a specialist staffing firm.
Jobs in demand in 2021
Retail: The sector was strongly hit by lockdown restrictions, but has been bouncing back with an uptick in hiring of 15 percent.
Cloud-based Technologies: With work from home being a long-term solution, the jobs in demand will be in Cloud-based technologies. Kapil Sharma, Chief Sales Officer, Collabera Technologies, said AI,
ML, API, DevOps, augmented and virtual reality, IoTs, 5G and cloud computing will be the jobs to look forward to.
Analytics: Subramanyam S, founder, president and CEO of AscentHR said, “More empowered in analytics means lesser employees will be needed in process industry. Automation will improve jobs but along with analytics it will be expensive and depends on budgets available.”
E-commerce and logistics: The opportunities will continue to boom as COVID third wave is anticipated.
Healthcare: There will be a need for temporary jobs to manage the pandemic rush, said Kamal Karanth of Xpheno.