KOLKATA: Indian economy is currently reeling under a nationwide lockdown that was announced by the Government on March 25. Its effect is naturally nowhere more evident than in the job sector of our country. This supposition has now been corroborated by the monthly data shared by the country’s largest online recruitment platform, Naukri.
The Naukri JobSpeak Index data from April 2020 show that the employment figures had sunk by 62% to 951 hired. For context, a total of 1954 people were hired in March. Furthermore, recently, the hirings had peaked at 2414 people, employed in the month of February.
JobsSpeak is a monthly index that calculates and records hiring activity based on the job listings on Naukri.com website every month. This index includes jobs that might also be for replacement hiring. December 2008 is taken to be the base with an index value of 1,000 and the subsequent monthly index is compared with the December 2008 data.
Among the different sectors, Naukri JobSpeak Index for April 2020 showed that industries like hotel/restaurant/travel/airlines (-91%); auto/ancillary (-82%); retail (-77%) and accounting/finance (-70%) were sectors which led in hiring the least. The jobs, analysed for the monthly index, are qualified on the basis of white-collar jobs belonging to the organized corporate sector alongside a focus on service industries.
The declines in job hirings have also been measures in a year-on-year basis compared to April 2019. According to the data in the aforementioned index, HR / Administration and Production / Engineering sectors saw the most decline in job hirings at 78% and 76% respectively. Moreover, sectors like retail and Banking saw a decrease of 69% and 60 % respectively. The Naukri JobSpeak data also showed that functional roles in purchase/supply chain declined 70%. Further meanwhile roles in marketing and advertising dipped 69%.
Massive slumps in double-digit figures were seen across cities in India, in terms of job hirings. This descent was led by the metros wherein Delhi declined by 70% followed by Chennai at 62%. Meanwhile Kolkata as well as Mumbai saw a declivity of 60% in job hirings. Other metros where hirings were hit the most include Hyderabad and Bangalore at a 57% decline in addition to Pune at a 55% of decline.
Experts are saying that the lockdown which was enforced to curb the spread of Coronavirus is the primary reason behind this meteoric decline. Specifically, the huge drop in cash flow for various businesses across India and the unprecedented challenges caused by restrictions in movement has led to logistical nightmares in most industry sectors. The end result is that businesses like airlines, hospitality and travel and hotel/restaurants which depend on customers are facing a massive decline in business. The economic downturn meant that these entities are trying to cut costs aggressively which is slowing down fresh hiring.