The latest Employment Outlook Report by TeamLease analyzes functional and environmental aspects across 21 sectors and 14 geographies to provide an in-depth insight into the hiring sentiments. It has surveyed 807 enterprises of various sizes (small, medium and large) in India and 82 employers across the globe to evaluate employment outlook trends.

The sanction to open business operations though in a phased manner seems to be having a positive impact on the hiring sentiment across sector and geographies states TeamLease Employment Outlook Report HY-1(April - September, 2020-21). According to the report, the hiring sentiment which had taken a beating and had sunk by 86% points from the previous half year is showing signs of gradual improvement since unlock 1.0. Until unlock 1.0 the hiring sentiment for the current half year (H1-April-Sept’20) was as low as 11%, however, it has improved to 18%.

According to the report, out of the 21 sectors analyzed barring for travel and hospitality all the other sectors, though in varying degrees are positive about hiring. Some of the sectors who are leading in hiring intent are Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals (21% increase since unlock 1.0), KPO (20% increase since unlock 1.0), Ecommerce & Tech Start-ups (19% increase since unlock 1.0), Educational Services (17% increase since unlock 1.0), Telecommunications (15% increase since unlock 1.0), Information Technology (15% increase since unlock 1.0), Retail (Essential) (14% increase since unlock 1.0), Agriculture & Agrochemicals (13% increase since unlock 1.0), FMCG (12% increase since unlock 1.0) and Power & Energy (10% increase since unlock 1.0). The biggest gainer of this marginal positivity is the blue collar profile. The hiring sentiment for blue-collar profiles has witnessed a 10% growth post re-opening of businesses. Further, as more and more companies are looking for talent who can steer ships out of troubled waters, the demand for senior level is also witnessing a growth in sentiment.

KEY FINDINGS 

• Global Trends: Labour markets, worldwide, witnessed collective mayhem with the pandemic causing Intent to Hire to fall steeply [by 68% - 79%] to barely double digit levels across all five geographic regions for the current HY (April – September, 2020-21). The Americas exhibit the lowest Intent to Hire [8%] although this drop in intent is the lowest among the geographies. Europe [9%], Africa [10%], Middle-East [11%] and APAC [14%] stack upward, with incrementally better Intent to Hire.
• India: The Intent to Hire recovers smartly from 11% during the lockdown period (25th March – 7th June, 2020) to 18% for the current HY (April – September, 2020-21) – beating all geographic regional levels. The recovery is driven by large businesses seeking to hire Blue Collar labour as well as leadership level talent, mostly in the metro and tier-1 cities.
• Sector-wise Trends: The Smart recovery is made possible by six of the ten leading sectors, undertaken initiatives to beat COVID-19 blues and dramatically improve the Intent to Hire between the lockdown period and now –
  • Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals [33%]
  • Educational Services [27%]
  • Agriculture & Agrochemicals [25%].
  • FMCG [24%]
  • Information Technology [22%]
  • Power & Energy [21%]
  • Other leading sectors: Ecommerce & Tech Start-ups and KPO [26% each], Retail (Essential) and Telecommunications [20% each]
  • Significant post-lockdown turnarounds: Logistics [20%] Manufacturing, Engineering and Infrastructure [07%]
• City Trends: Leading cities: Bangalore [21%], Delhi [19%], Hyderabad [15%], Chandigarh [14%], Mumbai and Kolkata [12% each], Pune [8%]
• Geographical Trends: Metros and Tier-1 cities [19%], Tier-2 cities [14%], Tier-3 towns [11%], and rural areas [10%] on Intent to Hire.
• Hierarchical Trends: Senior-level Intent to Hire [29%] is paramount for businesses while Mid-level [18%] and Junior-level [16%] hiring intent are modest and trail far behind. Hiring intent at Entry-levels [6%] is yet to pick up steam.
• Business size Trends: Large businesses are proactively pursuing business revival initiatives and displaying greater Intent to Hire [24%] compared with Medium [12%] and Small businesses [7%].
• Functional Area Trends: Blue Collar workforce [29%], IT [16%], Office Services [15%]. Sales [14%] and Engineering [11%]. Marketing [9%] and HR [8%]
• Attrition Trends:
  • Drop in attrition rate to nearly a fourth or a third of the previous HY levels: Travel & Hospitality [2.98%], Manufacturing, Engineering & Infrastructure [3.02%], Construction & Real Estate [3.33%], FMCG & D [3.56%], Logistics [4.75%], Retail [5.53%] and BPO/ITeS [6.37%].
  • Drop in attrition rate to nearly half or 40% of the previous HY levels: Agriculture & Agrochemicals [4.65%], Financial Services [5.12%], Media & Entertainment [5.31%], Consulting [5.77%], Marketing & Advertising [6.21%], and Ecommerce & Technology Start-ups [8.43%].
  • Drop in attrition rate by less than 30% - 40% of the previous HY: Health & Pharmaceuticals [7.26%], Power & Energy [7.89%], Information Technology [8.11%], Knowledge Process Outsourcing [9.08%] and Educational Services [9.89%].

Commenting on the report, Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President, TeamLease Services, said, “Though it’s or more than 4 months since the pandemic hit us, India Inc. is still struggling to come to terms with the new normal, the COVID world. In fact, the pandemic has actually made corporates to re-look, re-structure and re-align their businesses and it is taking a hit on the hiring sentiments. Today, organizations are increasingly becoming conscious of the fixed costs and that is one of the major reasons for the slow uptick in the employment sentiment by the mid and small businesses. Though it may take a quarter or more, these businesses will also definitely pick up bringing about a marginal improvement in the overall employment scenario. Further, we will also see more and more companies adopting newer models of manpower management like temp staffing and gig workforce bringing the optimism back into the job market.”

A detailed drill down on the employment eco-system, as per the report the revival of the sentiment is largely driven by large businesses in metro cities rather than mid and small size business. According to the report, Bangalore with a 13% increase in intent, post the opening of the businesses, seems to be leading in terms of sentiments. The other cities which are positive about hiring are Delhi, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Kolkata and Pune. However, Kochi and Coimbatore have not been able to recover. Further, a detailed analysis of the on the various aspects governing the manpower management as per the study, 17 out of the 21 sectors reviewed saw a significant drop in their attrition levels.