Around 12.2 crore people lost their jobs: How Covid-19 will change job prospects and hiring in India

Even though there are several countries that have been hit a lot harder by Covid-19 than India, somehow India’s unemployment rate has skyrocketed to a staggering 27.1% since the beginning of the lockdown, especially in metropolitan cities.

We’re not saying that India has not been hit hard by Covid-19, but even the United States which has more than a million confirmed cases haven’t seen such a huge spike in the unemployment rate.

These are uncertain times and a lot of industries are getting disrupted on a daily basis.

Let’s shed some light on what the current hiring and unemployment scenario currently looks like and what the post-Covid-19 scenario might hold for us in the future.

Employment in Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and unorganized sectors are said to be the worst hit. This has left hundreds of thousands of migrant workers stranded across the country.

Which are the main Covid-affected sectors?

The pandemic-affected sectors are:

• Food service
• Travel
• Retail
• Door to door sales
• Recreation
• Fitness
• Wellness
• Real estate

The pandemic has led to job losses in every sector and an estimated 6 crore Indians out of 60 crores who go to work (or one in 10) are at the risk of losing their jobs before autumn breaks in India, with businesses under the lockdown facing severe challenges to resume.

There have been several instances where employees either lost their jobs or faced massive pay cuts.

In one such case, it was a blow to Deepa who has been working in a company for almost a decade when she was suddenly asked to leave. The reason given was that the company incurred huge losses due to the pandemic and the management had to ask her to resign suddenly.

As having employees work from home became the only way to continue conducting business, another situation that has risen is businesses are relying on computers to complete their jobs. Many jobs that had been done in offices are now being performed from living rooms around the country, as the work-from-home trend becomes a forced reality.

A lot of businesses are trying to maintain their usual operations even in such tough times.

Job sectors where hiring will increase due to Covid-19

But all hope is not lost, there has been an increase in hiring for a handful of industries including:

• Corporate services
• Legal services
• Public safety
• Software & IT services

There is an increasing demand for niche job skills and corporates are hiring talent to select roles that require specialized certifications in niche skills across business segments.

In the post-Covid-19 word, more businesses will look to build processes online, few business models might even have to evolve in ways to leverage the possibilities and opportunities of the digital medium.

This will cause an increase in the demand for:

• Web developers
• Cloud computing specialists
• Cybersecurity professionals

This, in turn, will cause an increase in the amount of data that is produced on a daily basis, and the demand for:

• Data Scientists
• Machine learning professionals
• AI specialists

They will also need people to market their service online, which would cause an increase in the demand for:

• Digital marketing professionals
• Social media marketers
• Content Managers
• Ads specialists

It’s a ripple effect -- with one change in the industry, a lot of the consecutive industries will be affected.

Although the future is unpredictable and anything could happen, the hiring/employment scenario will most likely look like this post-Covid-19.

- Article by Sumesh Nair, Co-founder, Board Infinity

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