Indian job market unfazed by inflation, hiring increases by 29 pc in Q1: Report

The job market in the country remained unfazed by inflation in the first quarter as most companies believed that it is not going to change hiring and salary of their employees, according to a report.

Despite fears of inflation, most jobseekers are not adversely affected by inflation as far as their livelihood and expenses are concerned, with six in 10 jobseekers saying they are not affected much, the quarterly hiring tracker by global job site ‘Indeed’ revealed.

In line with the employee sentiment, 89 per cent of employers interviewed said inflation will not change the way companies hire and pay employees, it added.

The Indeed Hiring Tracker of Q1, FY23, is based on a survey of 1,229 employers and 1,508 employees during April-June 2022.

Indeed’s hiring tracker also indicated a positive job momentum growth with employers increasing hiring by 29 per cent in April-June 2022 compared to a 20 per cent increase in the previous quarter.

The findings further revealed that 37 per cent of all jobseekers looked for a job or a job change during the quarter, compared to 46 per cent during the previous quarter, it added.

Sectors such as IT, healthcare, e-commerce will continue to grow and with the advent of 5G , we will see a sharp rise in telcom jobs as well in the next few quarters.

“With the rising job market and ever-evolving concept of job, it will be interesting to see how India defines the future of work,” Indeed India Head of Sales Sashi Kumar said.

Further, according to the findings of the report, employers looked at varied engagement modes during the quarter that could help them manage candidate expectations as well as costs such as full time, part time, gig or contractual work as a response to inflation.

Jobseekers continued to prefer full time work (63 per cent) as opposed to part time employment (26 per cent) or gig or contract employment (11 per cent).

However, on the employer side, the difference is less disproportionate with over 19 per cent employers hiring gig workers during the quarter, it added.

The report also revealed that for employers (27 per cent) it seemed to be the hardest matching increment expectations among all other benefits to counter inflation.

IT/ITeS continued to lead all sectors, with 91 per cent of the employers in the sector hiring during the quarter against 83 per cent in the previous quarter.

This trend is most likely a consequence of the attrition the tech sector experienced in recent times, it noted.

Despite appearing at the bottom of the list, sectors like Design and Development (33 per cent), Operations or Administration (29 per cent) and Accounts and Finance (26 per cent) had an appreciably higher proportion of employers hiring during the quarter.

The report further revealed that tech roles found favour as the most in-demand for the quarter, while healthcare and e-commerce were the other top sectors contributing to the surge in talent demand.

Meanwhile, metros dominated hiring among cities with hiring activity in Bangalore (93 per cent), Mumbai (87 per cent) and Chennai (82 per cent) exhibited strong growth in hiring as compared to other cities.

Chandigarh (59 per cent), which came in last, still showed a substantial increase in hiring over the quarter, it added.