India Labour Market Update - Looking Back on 2020

LinkedIn's Economic Graph is a digital representation of the global economy, and insights from the graph provide real-time information on trends that are emerging in the labour market. 

As we look back on 2020, there are overall positive signs that the India labour market is recovering. Hiring is on an uptrend, competition for jobs is back to pre-COVID levels, and the propensity for workers in badly-hit sectors to look for jobs in a different sector is coming down. While it is still early days and there will be a much longer road to full economic recovery, we are optimistic about the promising trends that are emerging.

Tracking India’s recovery

Over the past few months, we have been providing regular updates about hiring and job posting trends in India. Here is a consolidation of the labour market metrics that we've been tracking to provide a visual snapshot of how the job market is faring in India. From this tracker, we can see that the India labor market has been gradually recovering since earlier this year in terms of hiring and job postings. In particular, we see that job postings are recovering in both Software & IT companies as well as non-software companies.

This tracker includes metrics on the hiring, job postings, and workforce confidence. Note that the dates displayed on the tracker are in Month/Day form. The non-software companies are primarily in the following sectors: Finance, Corporate Services, Hardware and Networking, Healthcare, and Manufacturing. 

After being significantly hit in middle of 2020, hiring rate in India has been recovering since August

Earlier in the year, hiring declines reached a low of below -50% year-over-year in April, before slowly recovering. Since then, India’s hiring rate has been on an upward trend, with approximately 10-15 percentage points recovery every month. As businesses and companies continue reopening, we expect recovery to continue as well.

This analysis looks at the year-on-year changes in hiring rate, which is a measure of hires divided by LinkedIn membership. Special note: Larger fluctuations tend to be seen around large public holidays - this might factor into the hiring rate spike seen in October.

Competition for jobs is almost back to pre-COVID levels

Over the past 12 months, we have seen the applications per job dip slightly during the initial lockdown months of March and April, before spiking to double in the middle of 2020, and then dropping back down to almost the pre-COVID levels. It is currently 1.2 times higher than 12 months ago.

This analysis looks at the average applications per job this month compared to one year ago - this reflects the competition for jobs in the country. 

Job seekers continue seeking opportunities in other industries, but under less pressure compared to June 2020.

The Recreation & Travel sector has been badly affected by COVID, and this shows - job seekers are 2.7 times more likely to look for jobs in a different sector, compared to pre-COVID. But in contrast with the numbers we saw in previous months (6.8 times in June, and 4.2 times in September), the stress has reduced significantly.

This analysis looks at how job seekers in different industries are adapting to changes and adjusting their jobs search strategy. The measure here calculates the likelihood that a member in a certain sector has applied for a job in a sector different to their own. 

In particular, we observe a general flow of workers from many of the badly affected sectors into the Software & IT sector. Diving deeper into the worst-hit Recreation sector, we also see that the most common successful transitions out of this sector are into Software & IT (32%), Education (16%), and Corporate Services (9%). Professionals should continue to consider new or different job opportunities, even as the economy continues to recover.

Compared to last year, fresh grads are 11x more likely to take on internships

Looking at the graduating Class of 2020, we see that the proportion of graduates going into internships has increased by over 11 times (compared to the Class of 2019 last year). This is likely reflective of the current challenging economic climate and job market.

In order to increase the success of getting a job, our previous research found that it pays to start applying for jobs up to one year before graduation, and establish networks in the hiring company even before joining them. Potential graduates for the Class of 2021 should take note and get a head start on job applications and start building their networks right now. Use the #OpenToWork feature to get started today!

Top posted jobs and skills needed are digital in nature

As of 1 December 2020, the most-posted jobs for India are: Software Engineer, Developer, Business Development Manager, Sales Executive, Business Analyst and Graphic Designer. Meanwhile, the most sought-after skills listed in job posts are also digital in nature, including Analytical Skills, Software Development, SQL, Javascript, and Cloud Computing.

LinkedIn has provided free learning paths for job seekers to learn the skills needed for these jobs. Check out these free resources today!

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