Recruitment and job searches are not very often associated with the social sector, which is at best considered to be a space for college students to volunteer before making a ‘serious’ move towards a career.

However, data released by online job portal Monster.com suggest that the trend is changing with recruitment at non-governmental organisations (NGO) and the social sector witnessing one of the biggest year-on-year (YoY) growths in October 2012.

With a 39 per cent jump on that for October 2011, the social sector has witnessed the second largest growth in online recruitment after the shipping industry, which posted a 46 per cent increase.

Further, despite sluggish growth, the overall online recruitment activity in the country has seen a 13 per cent rise, the Monster Employment Index shows.

Giving broad trends in the job market, Monster.com report said that from an index level of 119 in October 2011, it had moved up to 135 in October 2012, a 13 per cent growth year on year with 21 of the 27 industry sectors showing increase in online recruitment activity.

Recruitment activity during the month, as analysed by Monster.com, appears to be the strongest in almost two years.

On the other hand, the manufacturing industry, which is widely seen as the most important sector for economic growth, witnessed the steepest fall in recruitment and dipped by 12 per cent YoY. 

Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com - India/Middle-East/South East Asia, said the double-digit gains in employment index from a year ago in October “reflect the confidence of Indian businesses in the current economy” with important sectors like IT, engineering, automotive, telecom, healthcare and education showing positive y-o-y growth.

Sector-wise growth

The other sectors to figure among the top five recruiters were printing/packaging with 29 per cent growth, retail with 24 per cent increase and engineering/cement/construction/iron/steel that saw 24 per cent growth during this period.

The occupational groups that witnessed the highest online demand were arts/creative that was up by 25 per cent and legal that was up by 21 per cent. Customer service, sales and business development and senior management were the other occupations to see a positive recruitment trend online.

The lowest growth industries (in online recruitment) were oil/gas/petroleum/power that saw zero growth, banking/financial services, insurance that saw a -2 per cent growth, Govt./PSU/Defence that recorded a -10 per cent growth, import/export that saw a -11 per cent growth and production and manufacturing which witnessed a -12 per cent growth.

The lowest growth occupations were software/hardware/telecom that grew 6 per cent, engineering/production that recorded 2 per cent growth and hospitality and travel, HR and administration and finance and accounts which all saw negative growth in the online job recruitment.

The study of the online recruitment activity showed it was up in 12 of the 13 locations monitored.

Tier II cities record robust job growth

Tier II cities in the country have put up a better a show in job generation year on year and the job demand was more for arts/creative/legal professionals.

Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu recorded the highest growth of 49 per cent year on year followed by Kochi (41 per cent), Jaipur (34 per cent), Baroda (28 per cent) and Bangalore (24 per cent). The cities with the lowest growth were Chandigarh and Delhi-NCR (7 per cent each), Kolkata (3 per cent), Pune 2 per cent and Ahmedabad (-4 per cent).

The Monster Employment Index is a monthly analysis of online job posting activity in India conducted by Monster India.

yegya.narayanan@thehindu.co.in

aesha.datta@thehindu.co.in

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