Introduction to Indian Job Market
India seems to be picking up the pace of employment rates again, in the later stages of 2020 even though COVID-19 has not been cured or eradicated yet.
This comes as a sigh of relief for those who were actively seeking post-graduation, laid-off, or previously unemployed, where the job market is seen to be reaching almost 70% of its pre-pandemic capacity again.
Back in March 2019, the country was shaken with the damaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a country-wide lockdown that had been put into place to flatten the curve, which proved effective in the initial wave of the Coronavirus spreading throughout the nation.
However, the downside of this protective measure and state of emergency was that businesses were forced to shut their operations and offices temporarily, thereby generating insurmountable losses to the national and global economy.
Industries such as the travel, hotel and catering, entertainment, and small companies completely tapped out and came to a screeching halt due to the lack of any business in these sectors, while other organizations moved to a work from home basis to keep their businesses going.
The first four to five months of 2020 adversely affected all sectors that were not a part of the essential services, suffering salary cuts, or a huge rate of employee layoffs.
There was a grave deficit in the number of qualified yet unemployed people in the country with very few opportunities from March to June 2020.
However, reports have observed that the dark days of a total blackout in the Indian job market are beginning to show signs of life and recovery now.
What recruiters have to say
The Human Resources recruiters across the country have admitted that they have had to change the way they recruit employees due to the lack of a central office.
These require assessing the new job descriptions available that are now in higher demand, setting up a new route to conduct efficient interviews and stringent verification for credentials as well as skill assessment to ensure organizations are matched with the best fit for their demand.
The hirers also have noted that the organizations have experienced an increased cost up to fivefold the previous allocation in training the new candidates due to the nature of work from home jobs.
Job seeking and hiring sites are witnessing a growing number of recruitment notifications and screening process through their portals, which spells that the Indian job market is once again rising from the ashes.
New skills in demand?
There has been a demand for new skill sets in candidates from various organizations to evolve with changing times.
The role of remote working has taken the front seat, which makes having previous experience in it a bonus for applicants. For this reason, freelancers are high in demand due to their efficiency in handling multiple clients and projects while working remotely with minimal training.
Emerging skills also include expertise in AI development, game development, logistics, customer service, targeted digital marketing, project management, counseling, and psychological therapy among others.
Even though the recruitment rates are around 47% lesser than the rate the Indian job market had around this time in 2019, there is a steady incline in the number of job openings coming up in various sectors across the economy.
Industries such as AI and technology, digital marketing, fintech, and finance are heading the recovery bandwagon where employment rates have picked up considerably, given their reinforced demand in the role of boosting the global economy in 2020.
Though things look a little bleak for the travel sector in India at the moment, we are sure they are not far behind and good days lie ahead considering the reforms in the way people travel.
Wrapping up
So, are we out of the woods yet? It may seem unlikely that the Indian job market reverts to its previously high rate of recruiting in 2019, but we definitely have started the climb towards recovery after the Unlock 1.0 and Unlock 2.0 phases.
Looking at the incline in recruiting trends, we are fairly optimistic about the employment rates steadily climbing back up.
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