Hiring’s across sectors have been on a decline for most of 2020, considering various economic factors, with Covid-19 pandemic being the prominent reason leading to unforeseen slowdown, reduced hiring activity for tech and non – tech sectors alike. Based on the latest edition – September 2020 edition of the ‘Labour Market Update’, hiring recovery across sectors seems real.
Earlier in the year, hiring declines reached a low of below -50% year-on-year in April, before starting to slowly recover. In late July, it crossed the 0% mark and continued increasing, reaching 12% in August and 30% year-on-year as of the end of September.
While hiring continues to improve, competition for jobs is easing, and the digital divide is narrowing, suggesting a recovery in hiring for the non-tech sectors.
In June 2020, the job seekers in the most affected affected sectors ( travel, recreation etc.) were 6.8 times more likely to seek jobs in other sectors. Compared to pre-COVID, job seekers who are currently in the badly affected sectors are 4.2 times more likely to look for jobs in a different sector. This change gives an understanding of situations easing up in affected sectors. Sectors like recreation , travel etc., have seen as push and recovery after July – August 2020 for most geographies with lockdown’s easing and facilities opening up. Preference of job seekers in other industries don’t show much of a change with regards to their likelihood of switching sectors.
As per this edition of the report, job seekers / professionals without digital skills were more affected by the hiring dips compared to those with disruptive digital skills (such as AI and Robotics). Recovery was also faster for disruptive digital talent, but in recent months, this gap has started to narrow from over 20 percentage points difference in April and May, to 2 percentage points difference in September. This possibly reflects on the recovery of non-tech sectors.