Healthcare, IT: These sectors boomed in 2020 despite pandemic

Even as 2020 saw many pink slips and salary cuts, there were still many fields of work that had seen a spike and are expected to see a rise in the coming year as well. Here us the look at those few sectors –

Medical/Healthcare: The demand for medical job roles have increased. The year-on-year requirement for professionals including ENT specialist, microbiologist, staff nurse, and medical superintendent/director is up by 48 per cent, 41 per cent, 30 per cent, and 18 per cent, respectively. Top medical/ healthcare companies in search of professionals on job search website — Naukri.com are Fortis, Apollo Hospitals, Religare, Bayer Group, Mankind Pharma, Wockhardt Hospitals, among others. The medical and healthcare saw an immediate sequential recovery of 90 per cent in hiring in May 2020, as per Naukri.com. Compared to the pre-COVID period, it is only down by 13 per cent in the post-COVID world.

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BPO/ITES: Despite a positive start, the BPO/ITES sector saw a decline in line with the pandemic. Signs of recovery were seen from June onwards once lockdown restrictions started to be lifted in some parts of the country. When comparing the pre and post COVID period, hiring in the sector is down by only 19 per cent. With more WFH support for employees, the sector has adapted, and hiring for roles such as telecalling or telemarketing executives with skills such as voice process, lead gen and sales has increased by 21 per cent as compared to last year. Companies are actively hiring for professionals. On Naukri.com, 86 per cent of offers rolled out by recruiters in this domain.

IT: The IT sector has been amongst the least impacted sectors when it comes to hiring in 2020. As digitisation across companies became the need of the hour with businesses being forced to go virtual, the sector saw a quick recovery in sequential hiring starting June after a decline in April and May. Compared to pre-COVID levels, hiring in IT is down by 23 per cent in the post-COVID period; but the sector shows promise as 76 per cent recruiters surveyed under Naukri Hiring Outlook said they would not action salary cuts. Key roles that are in demand in the sector include tech support engineer, database architect/ designer, ERP consultant, and software developer. The demand for these roles for the current year is up by 98 per cent, 34 per cent, 20 per cent, and 6 per cent, respectively as compared to 2019. Apart from marquee companies that hire in the sector, startups such as Cars24, Lenskart, Dunzo, Razorpay, Delhivery and Pine Labs are actively hiring on Naukri.

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Education/Teaching: The pandemic pushed the education sector to adopt a digital module of teaching, helping in its sequential recovery of 71 per cent in June. Although it is 36 per cent down in the post-COVID period compared to pre-COVID levels, skills such as content writing (+20 per cent) and instructional design (+112 per cent) are in demand in the sector by recruiters. Top EdTech platforms such as BYJUs, Toppr, and Simplilearn are offering roles on Naukri. Top education groups such as Podar Education Network, Rustomjee Kerawala Foundation, Amity University, and even coaching centres such as FIITJEE are actively hiring.

While the IT, BPO/ITES, and Medical/ Healthcare sectors led the hiring in 2020, some sectors such as hospitality/travel, retail and auto are seeing a sequential revival after a sharp hit because of the pandemic. “Since this year was more about transitions and navigations, we are looking forward to 2021 for sustainable growth in the job market,” said Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com.