Amid the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, hiring activity witnessed a sequential decrease of 15 per cent in April as compared to March 2021 at 2,436,  according to the Naukri JobSpeak Index.

However, the current impact on the job market is less severe than what we saw in Apr'20 given the lack of a strict countrywide lockdown.

The increased requirement for healthcare and life insurance has had a less impact on hiring in sectors such as Insurance (-5 per cent), Pharma/Biotech (-9 per cent), and Medical/Healthcare (-10 per cent) in Apr'21 over Mar'21. The IT-Software (-12 per cent) sector, which remained shielded and drove robust hiring over the past few months, declined less than the national average sequentially. Other sectors such as FMCG (-15 per cent) and Telecom (-15 per cent) declined in line with the overall hiring trend in April'21 vs March'21.

The Retail sector, which grew in March, experienced a sharp decline of 33 per cent in Apr'21 due to restricted operating hours or closure owing to lockdowns in many parts of the country. Sectors such as Hospitality and Travel (-36 per cent), Banking/Finance (-26 per cent) and Teaching/Education (-24 per cent) remained highly impacted in hiring activity in Apr'21 Vs Mar'21.

The jobs market across metro and non-metro cities saw a downfall, barring Kolkata (+0 per cent) that remained flat. The aggressive surge of cases in Maharashtra directly impacted hiring trends in Mumbai, which saw a sequential decline of 20% in Apr'21. While Delhi/NCR (-18 per cent) also remained impacted sequentially, Bangalore (-10 per cent), Chennai (-10 per cent) and Hyderabad (-4 per cent) were less impacted in Apr'21 Vs Mar'21. Jaipur (-25 per cent) and Chandigarh (-23 per cent) led the decline in hiring in tier-2 cities while Cochin (-5 per cent) remained the least impacted sequentially. Interestingly, Ahmedabad, which was showing robust growth in hiring over the past few months showed a decline of 12 per cent in hiring in Apr'21 Vs Mar'21.

Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com said, "The disruption caused by the second wave of COVID-19 has impacted the hiring activity leading to a 15 per cent sequential decline in Apr'21. However, the current impact on the job market is less severe than what we saw in Apr'20 where the Naukri JobSpeak index declined by 51 per cent M-O-M. This could be attributed to the lack of a strict nationwide lockdown being announced this time and the economy remaining open. The Hospitality, Travel, Retail and Education/Teaching sectors continue to be the first few sectors to be most impacted as was the case during the first wave while the Pharma/Medical/Healthcare sector remains shielded."