2 years after COVID, hiring up 44% in India

Job posting trend compared to pre-COVID levels

As the country nears the two-year anniversary of COVID-19, strong demand for non-IT engineers, finance professionals and software developers is driving a recovery in hiring activity in India, according to numbers from recruitment website indeed.com

Overall demand for workers, as reflected in the number of new job postings, are up 44% as of February this year compared to February of 2020, just before the pandemic, said the job classifieds website.

“Demand for jobs was highest in Engineering roles, up 46% since the past year,” said the website .

Engineering job postings grew faster than software job postings, which grew 19%.

In fact, second in rank, in terms of job opening growth, is the financial sector, which saw a whopping 40% growth. Driver & food delivery roles too saw an improvement, and were up 2.3%.

“These categories experienced postings growth that exceeded the national average throughout last year in the pandemic,” it noted.

In fact, said the website, India job postings have exceeded their pre-COVID levels since September 2021.

“We have seen demand for talent rise across almost every occupational category, although to a much greater extent in some occupations than in others,” said the firm.

“Workers in India have greater choice and might get more bargaining power than before the pandemic. This may lead to more positive outcomes for employees in terms of higher compensation and workplace benefits.”

On the negative side, job growth has been slower in sectors such as sanitation, education and real estate.

The percentage of job postings containing terms such as ‘remote’ went up to 8.4%, showing demand for continuing interest for roles that are work-from-home oriented, it noted.

Indeed.com is one of the newer recruitment platforms in India, and competes with naukri.com, monster.com and LinkedIn.