Dec 30, 2008

Business - Job hiring declines by nearly 22 pc, says Naukri.com’s JobSpeak report

The slowdown has started impacting the job scenario in the country in a significant way. According to ‘JobSpeak’, a report released by Naukri.com, the Overall Job Index in October 2008 stood at 781 as compared to 1000 in July 2008, indicating a decline of nearly 21.9 per cent. Historically, there is a seasonal decline in October, which is around 10 per cent, as recruitment slows down due to the festive season, this year, the slowdown in hiring has been sharper, affecting new jobs by 21.9 per cent. The Index suggests that companies are scaling back their recruitment plans due to the global financial crisis and the current economic conditions.

Commenting on the report, Hitesh Oberoi, COO and Director, Info Edge (India) Ltd, said, “‘JobSpeak’ is a unique initiative to provide our stakeholders and all interested parties an insight into new job creation across locations and sectors in India. In the current economic situation, the Index will be a useful guide to asses the job market, existing opportunities and the upcoming sectors. We will keep this initiative up by releasing monthly reports on trends.”

JobSpeak indicates the industries that have seen a growth/decline in new jobs. Over the past three months, real estate, banking, finance, IT and retailing have shown a decline, while telecom, pharma and hospitality have emerged as attractive options. Some niche sectors, like Government, Defence and Legal have gained attractiveness in recent months.

The index has been calculated based on new jobs added to the site month on month. July 2008 has been taken on a base of 1000 and August, September and October index is compared with the July data.

City-wise Analysis

Metros saw a dip in the supply of new jobs. Besides the impact of the slowdown, Diwali and Dussehra are popular festivals across India, which impact hiring to a considerable extent.

Metros that are the bulk provider of jobs witnessed a decline in new jobs to the tune of 16 per cent in comparison to the usual 10 per cent in earlier festive seasons. In the Delhi-NCR region, new jobs fell sharply after maintaining stability in August and September. The job index for Delhi fell from 1000 to 786. Mumbai witnessed a higher setback in October as compared to September and August, the job index fell from 1000 to 715 in October 2008 as compared to July 2008. Bangalore, the IT hotspot, has lost new jobs since July, especially in August, which saw a decline of close to 20 per cent as compared to September. Chennai saw a marginal increase in new job creation during September, however, October saw a fall to the tune of 10 per cent. Hyderabad and Pune bore the brunt of the slowdown, especially in the IT sector and witnessed a decline of over 15 per cent in new jobs during October. Jobs in Kolkata were severely affected with October alone witnessing a decline in new jobs by over 32 per cent. Chandigarh, affected to an extent by the IT industry slowdown, saw a slowdown in hiring to the tune of 35 per cent since July.

Industry Analysis

IT – both the software and hardware sectors – saw a dip in new jobs by almost 25 per cent since July this year. Banking and Financial Services have seen a decline of over 32 per cent in October, while Construction and Engineering have seen a decline in new jobs by almost 22 per cent since July 2008. The Telecom industry, which was looking up in August and September, had seen an increase in jobs, while October witnessed a dip of 17 per cent indexed to July. The fluctuation could be owing to the festive season.

Interestingly, the BPO industry has witnessed a slight bounce back by 10 per cent in October after witnessing a decline in new jobs in August and September. The Pharma industry has been comparatively less affected with a fall in the index of less than 15 per cent. Niche sectors like Government and legal have seen an increase in new jobs.

Functional area Analysis

Across most functional areas and departments, the decline in new job creation has been to the tune of 15-20 per cent. The slowdown has trickled down to most functional areas in October with Sales, Business Development executive, Project Managers, Banking – Insurance, Marketing and HR professionals seeing a decline in online availability of new jobs. September had been a more positive month with Sales, HR, Marketing seeing a marginal increase in availability of new jobs. In October, new job creation for Project Managers and Sales and Business Development Executives fell by a huge margin, indicating the low business sentiment in the market. IT- Software and Banking professionals saw a drastic decrease in online availability of new jobs during October.

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