Hiring up 35% from April to June; competition for jobs doubles in 6 months: LinkedIn

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the job sector seems to be easing, as hiring across India has witnessed a 35% increase in June compared to April, according to a study.

The hiring sentiment, which stood at -15% at June end compared to the same period a year ago, had dropped to -50% in April from the year ago period, a LinkedIn study showed.

It may be noted that several startups and enterprise technology companies across sectors have laid off or furloughed hundreds of employees due to the impact of the pandemic. 

Paralelly, the competition for jobs has doubled, with the average number of applications per job posted on LinkedIn increasing to 180 in June from 90 in January, the Labour Market Update study showed.

June also saw an increase in the demand for disruptive skills, the Sunnyvale, California based company said. While roles of software engineer, business development manager, sales manager, business analyst and content writer were the most in demand, skills such as JavaScript, SQL, sales management, team leadership and recruiting were the most sought after.

The male-female hiring gap has narrowed from about 40% in February to 30% in June, the study said.

Read: Microsoft launches programme to upskill 25 mn people as job losses mount

Founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman, Konstantin Guericke, Allen Blue, Jean-Luc Vaillant and Eric Ly, LinkedIn is an employment-oriented online service, which primarily caters to white collar employees.

Last month, the company said it would lay off about 960 employees, or 6% of its global workforce, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic’s effect on its talent solutions.

In June,  it rolled out a polling feature to enable users to reach out to their networks for feedback, share it with others, engage in new conversations and make informed decisions based on the responses. 

Last year in November, it launched a feature that allowed freelancers and small business owners to showcase their services on Linkedin profiles. Branded Open for Business, the feature was released in India and the rest of the world following an initial rollout in the US in July 2019.