Originally published in Amazing Workplaces

As we complete one year of the first lockdown. What is the current situation of the global Job market?

It has been a tough last year for the job market. Job losses, pay cuts, layoffs, mass reduction, shutdowns & a lot of negative sentiment globally with millions of livelihoods impacted. Although we have still way far from the pre-covid level job vacancies & hiring activity, it is a significant relief to see some of the sectors and industries opening up slowly and the hiring momentum increasing.

How is the Indian scenario different from the global scenario?

While we have seen the job markets around the world getting impacted adversely due to covid, one positive thing about a market like India is the early signs of a positive come back, especially after the vaccine hit the market. We have seen a positive hiring activity, new jobs, many active job seekers movement & more on our platform(SCIKEY). With a significant number of global employers now open to the idea of remote work & distributed teams, India sees a steady increase in the jobs offshored to India from international markets.

Another massive advantage India has as compared to many other global economies is the quantum of production as well as consumption both in our domestic market that in a way reduces our dependence on global economies alone to get our jobs & livelihoods back, unlike many other global economies that are primarily dependent on the outside markets for production and consumption both.

What kind of jobs see a rise during the post-COVID era? Which Industries will benefit more and which would be impacted negatively?

Based on the industry reports and a lot of research statistic published from leading players, coupled with the traction on SCIKEY, we see a surge of jobs in technology products & services, pharma & healthcare, chemicals, FMCG & CPG, retail, e-commerce, delivery & logistics, Insurance, Ed-Tech, and e-learning industry. After the vaccine’s arrival, even the manufacturing & automotive sector has started showing signs of revival. Media & OTT, online games, telemedicine, health & wellness, is booming.

Even the online entertainment and dating platforms have seen quite a good traction as well. So, I think most tech-driven or tech-enabled industries will continue to see a rise in demand. As a natural human response in such pandemic or immediately after is to minimize and mitigate risks usually, industries like luxury goods, real-estate, high-end electronics, and alike may need more time for a revival.

What job skills see an upward trend in demand for talent?

I would say technology is a clear winner in this category, followed by marketing. Skills like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data & Analytics, Cloud-Computing, UI/UX, Web & Mobile, Machine Learning on the technology side, and skills like Digital Marketing, SEO, Content Writing, Design, Video & Audio Editing, etc. on the marketing side are pretty hot. Market research, sales & business development, investments, mergers & acquisition, venture capital & private equity are also skills in high demand.

Going forward, what changes do you see in organizations’ hiring strategies?

While the established companies will still be stuck with the traditional models & hiring strategies, we see some exciting trends favoring the more forward-looking companies. We will see technology playing a lot more prominent role in talent discovery & sourcing, hiring, and engagement. Many businesses are now taking the concept of talent mobility and talent marketplaces quite seriously.

With a large set of modern organizations now quite receptive to remote work, distributed teams, hybrid offices, and work from anywhere kind of model, the future of work will differ. We will also witness a sea change in the typical employer-employee relationship, with more variables to the equation and new aspirations. With most young working populations quite comfortable with the idea of on-demand work, gigs, and ‘passion economy,’ the organizations will need to adapt their hiring strategies.

Another emerging trend is that most employers are not comfortable expanding their fixed-cost base a lot regarding employees & headcount cost. Therefore we will see a significant surge in project-based work, contract jobs & hire-on-demand or talent-as-a-service type of engagement models.

India will also witness a vast FDI and, therefore, many global jobs coming to India, but this time it may not be standard offshoring of India’s jobs that we have seen all this while. It will look very different, with a lot of exciting models and engagement formats. We will also see many organizations prioritizing and investing towards re-skilling and up-skilling their current staff against purely hiring new headcount from outside. Besides, many graduate jobs will get created soon because employers will find it relatively cost-effective to train & utilize the unique skills & energy, especially in the emerging & new-tech space.

Lastly, it will not be a game of skill-set alone anymore. Pandemic has taught us all the importance of attitude, mental resilience, adaptability, change management, and many more. Therefore, the organizations that care about their future shall refine or redesign their hiring strategies to acquire winning talent against just skilled talent.