Economic slowdown: Online hiring slips 5% in Jan-June 2019; automotive, ancillaries, tyre sectors hard hit

Mumbai: The economic slowdown in the country has led to 5 percent decline in online hiring during January-June period of this year as compared to the preceding six months, according to a report.

The hiring trend for H1 2019 has registered a slowdown in growth by almost 5 percent, compared to H2 2018, mainly led by sectors including automotive, ancillaries, tyres sectors where online hiring dipped by 10 percent and agro-based industries that went down by 51 percent, according to Monster Employment Index.

Meanwhile, year-on-year basis the online hiring demand witnessed 16 percent growth H1 2019 compared to H1 2018. “The online hiring demand has witnessed a 16 percent increase between H1 2018 and H1 2019. The demand was led by tier 2 cities, sectors like retail, telecom and professions including hospitality and travel and finance and accounting.

There are certain sectors including agro-based industries, automotive and consumer goods and FMCG that need attention in order to revive demand,” Monster.com CEO, AC and Gulf, Krish Seshadri said.

Concerning the automotive industry, there have been certain developments like RBI repo rate cut, which should revive the appetite for car loans and hence the demand, he said. The government is also focusing on electric vehicles, which should help the sector in the long-term, he added. Telecom has shown growth from H1 2018 where it was falling by 1 percent, it said adding that the hiring numbers further fell by 13 percent in H2 2018. However, the sector managed to recover in H1 2019 where it has registered a growth of 22 percent, it added.

Similarly, automobile and ancillaries industry continued to fall from 3 percent in H2 2018 to 10 percent in H1 2019. The social services registered a 25 percent growth rate in H2 2018, however, it fell to 2 percent in H1 2019. Agro-based industries were growing at 23 percent in H2 2018 but in H1 2019, they registered a 51 percent decline in online hiring. Tier-II cities have shown a higher hiring demand in H1 2019 compared to the metros, it said.

Both Baroda and Ahmedabad registered higher hiring demand numbers consistently compared to the metros, it said. Baroda had a demand of 11 percent in H1 2019, recovering from a fall of 19 percent in the corresponding time frame in 2018. Simultaneously, Ahmedabad registered 5 percent growth, recovering from a 16 percent fall in demand in H1 2018.

On the other hand, it revealed that it revealed that metro cities have shown a lower hiring demand like Delhi (3 percent), Mumbai (0 percent), Bangalore (1 percent) and Hyderabad (3 percent) showed a marginal increase in demand.