Although concerns have risen over Omicron, the new variant of the coronavirus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, companies believe the boom in the job market could be key to better days to come. But for this it is necessary that the process of economic revival is not affected much by the third wave of the epidemic.
Economic activity in the first half of 2020 was severely affected by the first wave of the pandemic. This had a negative impact on both the formal and informal sectors of the job market. The challenges associated with the pandemic are not over yet, but with the passage of time, the employment outlook is now looking more positive.
“Omicron or not, we have strong reasons to believe that the days of complete shutdown are over,” says A Balasubramanian, business head (consumer and health care) at TeamLease Services, a job market watchdog. Be it employers or government organizations, everyone has realized that a right balance has to be struck between life and livelihood.
The trend of employees returning to the office is gaining momentum and companies are very optimistic about their recruitment plans. Apart from strong economic growth, this has also been accelerated by rising consumption levels and increased coverage of vaccination.
Nitya Vijayakumar, Senior Consultant, SHRM India, says, “We are seeing a spurt in private equity investments and M&A deals. The employment outlook in 2022 is expected to remain bullish, given the lack of skilled talent coupled with the pace of vaccination. have hope.”
With this, he says that only time can tell about the passing of the bad phase of the epidemic. But big companies and startups are very excited about new recruitments.
According to ManpowerGroup’s employment outlook survey, the hiring sentiment in the January-March quarter is the highest in eight years. About 49 percent of the companies in India are planning for new recruitments during this period.
According to the survey, the recruitment sentiment has improved by five per cent over the previous quarter as against 43 per cent growth over the same period a year ago. As far as the recruitment in the March quarter is concerned, the demand for employees with specialization and skills will be high.
Siddharth Gupta, CEO, Mercar Metal, says, “The key issue of recruitment in 2022 will be specialist roles. Finding the right people for the specific role will be on the lookout for the right candidates.”
According to Gupta, the large-scale resignations during the pandemic and the process of digitization have changed the way work is defined forever. Moreover, the days of measuring productivity on the basis of hours worked are also a thing of the past.
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