Indeed India, an arm of Texas-based job search engine, has reported a 50% decline in job postings in May, across all sectors, in the country.
Under certain segments, postings — jobs available on the site — have come down very significantly. For instance, as of May end, hospitality and tourism related job postings, on the portal’s India site, were down by 75.3%, compared to the corresponding month a year ago. Decline in postings under the segment was 69.2% as on May 15.
Indeed, that claims to be the world’s largest job portal, also reported a 42% decline in retail related job postings, as against same time a year ago.
However, it said, between February 2020 and May, many were found actively searching for retail jobs and there has also been an increase of 28.50% in the availability of certain retail related job roles such as assistant managers, retail sales associates, etc.
Sashi Kumar, Managing Director, Indeed India told The Hindu that, “We have been tracking job trends on a weekly basis to analyse the impact of Covid-19 on India’s labour market. We have been closely observing the activities of both job seekers and job providers in the last few months. Through these weekly job analysis, we aim to provide meaningful insights on the market. Interestingly, resilience is being displayed by many employers, even as the world is grappling with the pandemic.’’
As per Indeed, the trend in job postings was roughly in line with last year’s (2019) trend until the second week of March. However, the slowdown accelerated in the second half of March and through April to May end.
Supply and demand data around employment for the next three months are going to be extremely critical as it would bring in some amount of clarity into the Indian job market.
