Indian jobs market posts positive numbers in March
Indian jobs market posts positive numbers in March
The Indian labour market saw a sharp recovery in March, with the number of people in work rising 18.4% year-on-year as restrictions eased and economic activity picked up, according to data from business process services provider AllSec Technologies.
The travel and hospitality sector, which has been one of the hardest hit by Covid-related lockdowns over the past two years, saw strong recovery with headcount growing 47.6% on the same month on 2021. This is in sharp contrast to the 48.7% drop in March 2021 from March 2020.
“We’ve seen an upbeat recovery pattern across industries this month [March]. Keeping an eye on the government’s job creation efforts across the business, we’re confident of seeing a positive trend over the coming months sectors as seen in the budget and the economic revival of the country,” said Ashish Johri, CEO of Allsec.
The energy sector saw a 41.5% annual increase in headcount (March 2022 compared with March 2021) and has comfortably exceeded pre-pandemic levels, with growth of 42% (March 2022 compared with March 2020).
The IT/ITes industry also performed well, up 27% in March, while the logistics sector posted growth of 27.3%. Sectors such as finance (16.6%) and food and beverage (12.9%) also showed upbeat trends year-over-year.
The logistics sector has seen the highest growth compared to pre-pandemic numbers. Compared to pre-pandemic levels (March 2022 compared with March 2020), the logistics sector has seen triple-digit growth (178.3%), the survey found.
Sectors that saw significant growth include energy (42%) and e-commerce (41.8%). The e-commerce and delivery industry has seen transformative growth amid retail store lockdowns and restrictions during the multiple waves of the pandemic.
On the cusp of ‘major recovery’
India is on the cusp of a major economic recovery, with talks of stagflation “overhyped” as a strong economic foundation is being laid by the reforms carried out by the government over the past seven years, according to Rajiv Kumar, vice chairman of public policy think tank Niti Aayog.
Despite economic uncertainties triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that is also impacting global supply chains, Kumar said that “it was clear that India will remain the fastest growing economy in the world”.
He said: “Given all the reforms that we have done in the last seven years, and given that we are seeing the end of the Covid-19 pandemic hopefully, and the 7.8% rate of growth that we will get this year (2022-23), a very strong foundation is now being laid for further rapid increase in economic growth in the coming years.”
Asia’s third-largest economy is projected to grow 8.9% in 2021-22, according to recent government data. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has pegged the economic growth rate for 2022-23 at 7.8%.
