Online hiring activity up 11% in April: Report

New Delhi: Online recruitment activity registered 11 percent growth in April, with production and manufacturing sectors exhibiting the highest long-term growth, says a report.

The Monster Employment Index for April was at 298, a 11 percent growth from the year-ago period. In April 2017, it stood at 268.

Online demand exceeded the year-ago level in 21 of the 27 industry sectors monitored by the index.

Production and manufacturing (up 54 percent) led all monitored industry sectors by way of long-term growth. The growth momentum paced up seven points from 47 percent in March 2018, the report said.

This was followed by home appliances, up 45 percent y-o-y.

?As Indian economy is positively adjusting to recent reforms, online hiring sentiment is also picking up at a strong pace. Impressively, online recruitment activity around production and manufacturing sector has rebounded, leading to a sharp rise in online demand," said Abhijeet Mukherjee, CEO, Monster.Com- APAC and Gulf.

The report further said that government/PSU/defence (down 34 percent) recorded the steepest annual decline among all monitored industry sectors.

BPO/ITES charted fewer opportunities on the year even in April. Nevertheless, the rate of decline relieved from down 24 percent in March to down 16 percent in April.

"... The ongoing processes of mergers and acquisitions in telecom sector has created a cautious hiring scenario. This reiterates the need for companies to focus on re-skilling and upskilling existing employees and for job seekers to gain new skills,? he added.

Growth momentum exhibited a significant drop in telecom/ISP sector down from 42 percent in March to 28 percent in April, the lowest recorded since March 2017.

City-wise data showed improved online hiring demand in all major cities. Jaipur (up 28 percent) led all monitored cities, followed by Chandigarh (up 24 percent) and Kochi (up 24 percent), the reprt by Monster said.

Mumbai with 15 percent growth from the year-ago period was the only tier-I city to record a double-digit growth yet-again. Hyderabad and Chennai registered 9 percent growth, up from a growth of one percent and two percent respectively in March 2018.

Online recruitment activity surpassed the year-ago level all 13 occupation groups monitored by the index.

There has been a notable increase in demand for health care professionals in April. The job role saw demand exceed the corresponding period a year-ago by 43 percent, the highest recorded among all monitored job roles, the report said.

Finance and account was the next most demanded job role registering a growth of 36 percent from the year-ago period.

Online demand for customer service professionals surpassed the corresponding period a year-ago by two percent following low levels in the past two month. This, however, is the most restrained year-on-year growth rate recorded among all monitored job roles, it added.