March 16, 2020: With the Coronavirus gathering its grip around India, its imminent impact is already showing in the M-o-M talent demand posted by various sectors highlights TimesJobs RecruiteX. Most sectors registered a fall in M-o-M talent demand, although the Y-o-Y demand analysis showed a 7% growth, concluded TimesJobs RecruiteX February 2020 report.

 

TimesJobs RecruiteX is a monthly recruitment index that records the demand and supply of talent at India Inc. The February 2020 analysis shows that the Projects/Infrastructure sector noted the sharpest dip in the M-o-M talent demand. After this, Petrochemicals/Oil and Gas, Export/Import/Merchandising and Logistics & Warehousing sectors also registered a decline in M-o-M talent demand.

 

“The world, especially China, the south-east Asia region, Italy and Iran, has been dealing with the impact of Coronavirus since December 2019. Accordingly, the sectors related to foreign trade, exchange, import and travel are experiencing a slowdown, which is now reflecting in their talent demand too. In the long term, their business output and profits too would show this impact,” said Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig. “For February 2020, the M-o-M talent demand is muted but the Y-o-Y talent demand was up. For now, we should wait and watch, and hope that the situation becomes better from here on”. 

 

The key highlights of the TimesJobs RecruiteX Feb 2020 report are:

 

 

Most high-volume sectors, including Retail, FMCG, BFSI and Manufacturing and Engineering registered a drop-in talent demand in Feb 2020 v/s Jan 2020 comparison. Here’s a quick list of sectors with negative talent demand:

 

• Projects/Infrastructure/Power/Energy: -17% 

• Petrochemicals/ Oil and Gas/ Power: -15%           

• Export/Import/Merchandising: -15%

• Logistics & Warehousing: -14%

 

 

Most job profiles like Engineering, Sourcing, Retailing noted a dip. The only respite is that the talent demand for Quality/Process Control roles noted the highest growth of over 30% in February 2020. 

 

Here’s a quick list of functional areas that witnessed negative talent demand:

 

• Logistics/Supply Chain: -17%

• Customer Service/ Tele Calling: -14%

• Front Office/ Administration: -13%

 

 

Chandigarh had the highest growth of 17% in talent demand in February 2020. Otherwise, all top cities, including the metro cities too noted a dip in talent demand. Here’s the city-wide loss in talent demand:   

 

• Lucknow: -30%

• Pune: -17%

• Jaipur: -15%

 

 

Professionals with 20+ years of work experience were most in demand. All the other work experience categories registered a downturn in the M-o-M assessment of talent demand.  

 

• Freshers and people with less than 2 years of work experience: -10%

• 5-10 years of work experience: -9%

• 10-20 years of work experience: -8%

 

RecruiteX is the recruitment index for India. It is an analysis identifying the hiring activity and trends in India Inc. Based on tactful extraction and examination of jobs posted and applied for in a month at TimesJobs, it details ‘recruitment’ as a process backed by hiring sentiments of a recruiter and aspirations of the job seekers alike.