Talent demand in India grew by 6% month-on-month amid the nationwide pandemic lockdown, according to the latest TimesJobs RecruiteX. RecruiteX is a monthly recruitment index that records the demand and supply of talent in India’s formal jobs sector.

Five sectors, including retail (30%), FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) (28%), infrastructure (21%), petrochemicals (15%) & IT/Telecom (13%), posted a double-digit month-on-month growth in talent demand.

The automobiles, construction, healthcare and manufacturing sectors also noted single digit growth in May for talent demand.

Most states in India had exempted e-commerce and take-away operations from the lockdown curbs along with ‘in-situ’ activities which propelled growth in retail, FMCG, infrastructure, construction, petrochemicals and manufacturing sectors the Index stated.

IT/Telecom has been betting on ‘work-from-home’ for business continuity since March 2020, hence its talent demand growth has been uninterrupted even amid the May 2021 lockdown.

In terms of individual cities, Vadodara (45%) and Pune (43%) reported the highest talent demand in May.

By job role, marketing and advertising saw the highest talent demand in May (30%).

In terms of experience, workers with more than 20 years of experience saw the most demand (30%).

Sanjay Goyal, Business Head TimesJobs and TechGig said, “The Covid-19 lockdown measures in 2021 weren’t as stringent as the 2020 version. Most state governments allowed ‘in-situ’ activities to continue hence heavy duty sectors continued work as usual, unlike the 2020 lockdown curbs when everything had come to a complete halt.”