India – Bangalore and Mumbai to lead in recovery of blue-collar jobs, survey finds

As India’s economy prepares to slowly open up amidst the pandemic, HR managers across key metro cities have expressed the intent to increase hiring for blue-collar and entry-level workers in the third quarter despite the on-going uncertainty due to the pandemic, according to a survey from HR platform OLX People.

The majority, or 90%, of companies surveyed in Bangalore confirmed their intent to increase the hiring of blue-collar and entry-level workers in the third quarter of 2020 as compared to 86% of companies in Mumbai. Delhi featured third with 76% of the companies stating that they expect a surge in hiring of blue-collar workers in the quarter ending September.

While ITeS is expected to emerge as the biggest employer of blue-collar workers in Bangalore, logistics will lead the growth in hiring in Delhi NCR.

In Mumbai, both ITeS and logistics are expected to boost the blue-collar and entry-level job market ahead of the festive season, along with BFSI where 86% of the companies surveyed said they foresee a hiring increase in this quarter.

Meanwhile, 100% of companies in the ITeS sector in both Mumbai and Bangalore said they expect a complete revival before December 2020. As per the survey, 100% of the companies in Delhi’s e-commerce and Mumbai’s logistics sectors also expect to fully recover within this year itself.

“It is exciting to see that the job market is showcasing green shoots of recovery especially as the economy gradually opens up and economic activity continues to gather pace. Strong growth indicators for recovery are visible not just for white-collar workers or the formal economy but also in the informal sector. This is important to note due to the fact that the gravity of impact on the informal sector due to Covid-19 was much higher than that of the formal sector,” Tarun Sinha, Head of OLX People (Horizontal Business Unit, OLX India), said.

OLX People’s data also showed that 85% of employers from across India say there may be an increase in the recruitment of blue-collar and entry-level staff ahead of the festive season this year.

The survey found that of the 85% who say there may be an increase, 40% were confident of witnessing a significant hiring surge in this segment in their organisations. Around 12% of the organisations anticipated continuing the hiring freeze.

The revival in hiring will be led by e-commerce and ITeS (IT-enabled services) with logistics and companies in food tech following close behind. Companies in sectors that are hiring currently also exhibited high confidence in business returning to normal before the close of this year.

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