Monster Employment Index: October 2021 Witnesses Promising Outlook for Travel and Tourism Industry

Monster Employment Index, the most reliable and comprehensive job analysis report by Monster.com, a Quess Company, has published its findings for October 2021, providing insights into the job market across industries, cities, functions and levels.

Data from the Index indicates that hiring demand witnessed a dip of 3% in October 2021, as compared to September 2021. However, job demand has witnessed a sequential incline of 9% in last six months showing an optimistic outlook to recovery. There has also been a strong year-on-year recovery with a 9% uptick in October 2021 (Oct 2021 vs Oct 2020).

October 2021 saw industries such as Office Equipment/Automation (30%) show remarkable improvement on account of back-to-office trends. Travel and Tourism (7%) also witnessed considerable monthly growth with a major uptick in cities such as Chandigarh, Jaipur, and Kochi. Further, hiring for professionals in Hospitality and Travel roles saw the highest month-on-month growth, indicating an overall promising recovery for the Travel sector in the months to come (Oct 2021 vs Sept 2021). There has also been an improvement in industries such as Education and Retail, as compared to the previous months.

As compared to October 2020, the Banking/Financial Services, Insurance (46%) and IT- Hardware, Software (37%) industries led in e-recruitment activity, marking the highest growth in metro cities which continue to dominate year-on-year hiring trends. The demand for entry-level professionals notably witnessed a yearly incline of 3% (Oct 2021 vs Oct 2020).

Office Equipment/Automation industry led e-recruitment activity in October 2021 with 30% month-on-month growth owing to return-to-office trends

With more and more organizations resuming work in physical offices and increasing automation efforts, the Office Equipment/Automation (30%) industry witnessed the highest month-on-month rise in job postings, followed by the reviving Travel and Tourism (7%) and Telecom/ISP (5%) industries. Industries such as Banking/Financial Services, Insurance (4%), IT - Hardware, Software (3%), Advertising, Market Research, Public Relations (PR) (2%), Education (2%), and Retail (1%) also showed a positive monthly uptick (Oct 2021 vs Sept 2021). While most industries continue to retrieve hiring numbers, few sectors such as Shipping/Marine (-11%), Healthcare, Bio Technology & Life Sciences, Pharmaceuticals (-3%), Production and Manufacturing (-1%), Media & Entertainment (-1%), and BPO/ITeS (-1%) witnessed a month-on-month decline in job postings in October 2021.

Year-on-year, Banking/Financial Services, Insurance (46%) led e-recruitment activity, followed by Telecom/ISP (38%) and  IT- Hardware, Software (37%), Printing/Packaging (31%), and Office Equipment/Automation (27%) in October 2021 (Oct 2021 vs Oct 2020). On the other hand, Government/PSU/Defence (-13%) industry witnessed the steepest annual dip in online job postings. Industries such as Engineering, Cement, Construction, Iron/ Steel (-11%), Education (-10%) and Travel and Tourism (-8%), Retail (-3%), and Media & Entertainment (-3%) industries still remain impacted and recorded continuous annual decline.

Tier-2 cities such as Coimbatore and Jaipur saw highest month-on-month growth in job postings

In the month of October 2021, city trends indicate that Tier-2 cities such as Coimbatore (3%) and Jaipur (1%) witnessed highest monthly growth in job postings. Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai, and Delhi-NCR, which previously witnessed a dip in hiring activity, have stabilized in the month. However, despite festive hiring demand, cities such as Kolkata (-5%), Bangalore (-2%), Pune (-2%), Chandigarh (-1%), Ahmedabad (-1%), and Chennai (-1%) witnessed a monthly decline in job posting activity (Oct 2021 vs Sept 2021).

Several industry-specific trends were noted basis the month-on-month index numbers. Bangalore (51%) and Delhi-NCR (45%) saw considerable uptick in the Office Equipment/Automation industry which saw the highest monthly growth in October 2021. Location-wise data also indicated that although the Education sector is still in revival mode, Chennai (8%) and Kochi (9%) have seen promising growth in job postings for the sector, stipulating a positive outlook. Further, the Travel and Tourism industry saw a considerable improvement in cities Chandigarh (9%), Jaipur (8%), and Kochi (5%) month-on-month (Oct 2021 vs Sept 2021).

Positively, metro cities continue to dominate year-on-year hiring with job markets in Bangalore (39%), Pune (29%), Hyderabad (27%), Chennai (25%), Delhi-NCR (16%), and Mumbai (14%) monitoring consecutive growth in job demand in October 2021. BFSI and IT - Hardware, Software industry marked significant growth in metros. Coimbatore (13%) and Kochi (2%) also observed a yearly incline (Oct 2021 vs Oct 2020). While 8 out of 13 cities monitored by the index witnessed a positive growth, cities such as Kolkata (-15%), Jaipur (-11%), Ahmedabad (-8%), Chandigarh (-7%) and Baroda (-4%) witnessed a dip year-on-year still recovering from the impact of the pandemic.

Hiring for professionals in Hospitality and Travel witnessed promising monthly growth with the revival of the Travel and Tourism industry

With the continuing revival of the Travel and Tourism industry in October 2021, hiring for professionals in Hospitality and Travel (5%) witnessed highest month-on-month growth in October 2021, followed by occupations such as Senior Management (4%), HR & Admin (3%), Arts/Creative (2%), Finance & Accounts (1%), and Customer Service (1%). Software, Hardware Telecom, Engineering/Production, and Marketing & Communications witnessed muted growth in the month of October, while Purchase/ Logistics/ Supply Chain (-5%), Legal (-4%), Sales & Business Development (-3%), and Health Care (-2%) saw a monthly decline in job posting activity. It is notable that data from the Index indicates that professionals in Marketing & Communication were seen more in demand in Kolkata with a 13% month-on-month growth (Oct 2021 vs Sept 2021).

Online demand for professionals in Senior Management (48%) Software, Hardware, Telecom (40%) have consistently grown year-on-year and dominated the space in October 2021. Other functions faring well in the month include HR & Admin (20%), Finance and Accounts (14%), Engineering/Production (4%) and Arts/Creative (3%). Software, Hardware, Telecom, Finance and Accounts, HR & Admin also mirrored growth trends prevalent among all major cities. Functional areas such as Customer Service (-38%) witnessed a steep annual dip on account of rising AI and automation used by organizations. Sales & Business Development (-19%), Healthcare (-9%), Hospitality & Travel (-8%), Legal (-3%) and Marketing & Communications (-3%) observed a fall in demand year-on-year (Oct 2021 vs Oct 2020).

Demand for freshers increases by 3% year-on-year

In comparison to September 2021, October 2021 saw growth across most job levels with hiring for Top management professionals (over 16 years) witnessed an increase of 4%, Senior level (11-15 years) and Mid-Senior level (7-10 years) an increase of 2% respectively, and Entry-level roles (0-3 years) a growth of 1%. Interestingly, hiring for Intermediate level (4-6 years) saw a monthly decline of -1% (Oct 2021 vs Sept 2021).

On a year-on-year basis, hiring for Entry level professionals witnessed a promising growth of 3%, showing consistent demand for freshers across industries. Top Management (70%), Mid-Senior level (38%), Intermediate level (29%), and Senior level (22%) continued to witness voluminous growth in hiring activity (Oct 2021 vs Oct 2020).

Sekhar Garisa, CEO - Monster.com, a Quess company said, “In the month of October, we saw a decline in hiring activities by 3%. This is a yearly trend we observe following festive hiring hikes. It is encouraging to see the Travel and Tourism industry dust off from the pandemic impact and truly pave its way to revival. We also see promising back-to-office trends with increasing automation and a huge spike in demand for office supplies. Moreover, the recruitment space is looking up for entry-level talent as more and more organisations are looking to hire freshers. At Monster.com, we have seen a huge improvement in the intent to hire by top companies via our virtual career fair for freshers - Aspire.”