Job listings continue to improve; agro-based industries, telecom return to pre-COVID levels: Report

Job listings continued to improve in December with industries including telecom, agro-based units, and media and entertainment returning to pre-COVID-19 levels, according to a report.

As per the Monster Employment Index, in comparison to December 2019, job postings have improved, with some industries returning to pre-COVID-19 levels.

The telecom sector grew 7 percent, agro-based industries 6 percent, and media and entertainment 4 percent, it said. Along with them, industries such as chemicals, trade and telecom continued to perform well, it added.

However, owing to the pandemic and its impact across various job sectors, the overall index has dropped significantly by 15 percent as compared to the previous year (December 2019), it said.

The Monster Employment Index is a broad and comprehensive analysis of online job posting activity conducted by Monster India (a Quess Company).

According to the report, industries that have witnessed maximum growth in job postings compared to the previous month are chemicals, plastic, rubber, paints, fertiliser and pesticides (15 percent), import and export (15 percent), telecom and ISP (12 percent), and printing and packaging (11 percent).

Agro-based industries, garments, textiles, leather, gems and jewellery, and healthcare, biotechnology and life sciences, and pharmaceuticals have also witnessed month-on-month growth of 7 percent, respectively.

However, industries such as home appliances declined by 10 percent, retail by 20 percent saw the biggest drop compared to November 2020, the report noted.

Owing to the reopening of the economy, industries such as production and manufacturing, oil, gas and petroleum, power and travel, and tourism have shown improvement after the pandemic impact, it added.

In comparison to November 2020, oil, gas and petroleum, power have grown 5 percent, production and manufacturing have grown 1 percent, and travel and tourism is down only 5 percent.

Optimistic about coming quarter

Production and manufacturing declined 35 percent, oil/gas/petroleum, and power 38 percent, and travel and tourism 64 percent are the most impacted, having seen the highest year-on-year decline compared to the other sectors due to the pandemic.

Jaipur, Coimbatore, Chennai, and Pune saw growth in job postings in December, compared to November, postings in Bengaluru, Kolkata and Baroda remained neutral with no shifts compared to the previous month.

Monster.com CEO Sekhar Garisa said, "We continue to see recovery in the job market, as there has been an uptick in the number of job postings across various sectors and functions, despite the challenges."

He added that while the impact of the pandemic and recovery has been different for each sector, "we are optimistic about the coming quarter given the various government and industrial boosts towards economic recovery".

Further, positive developments towards the vaccine discovery add to the hope that there will be more and more industries opening up and coming out of the pandemic-led slump, Sekhar said.