White collar hiring in travel industry perks up by 22% this year

Hospitality and tourism provided the silver lining in the white collar hiring trend, registering a 22 per cent growth year-on-year (YoY) as Indians took to travelling, propelling the sector, according to a report by Naukri.com released on Monday.  The remarkable growth countered the overall 8.6 per cent shrinkage in white-collar hiring the country saw between September, 2022 and September 2023. 

Mumbai led the cheered up job scene in hospitality, hiring the most in roles such as restaurant managers and guest services in September 2023. 

“The hospitality industry is witnessing an extraordinary hiring surge, due to various factors like the World Cup in India that has sparked an increase in leisure travel, with supporters and visitors travelling to the country to watch the matches. This inflow of visitors has resulted in a huge demand for lodging and services, leading hotels and resorts to increase their staffing levels,” Somesh Agarwal, chairman and managing director at Radisson Blu Palace Resort, Udaipur said, adding that the festive season will bring further spike in travel, fueling the need for additional workforce in the hospitality industry.

According to Ankit Aggarwal, founder and chief executive of  community engagement and hiring platform Unstop, “Hiring in the tourism sector is on the rise this year, driven by increased disposable incomes and higher spending on leisure and business travel and the growing popularity of adventure and sustainable tourism.”

“With more people travelling, a wave of new hospitality businesses emerging, and an increasing focus on top-notch customer service, it’s a hotbed for hiring,” Rohit Sethi, founder and director of Seclude Hotels Home Style attested. 

“At Zostel, we have been hiring property interns across destinations to provide travellers with a non-compromised and community-centric experience,” informed  Deep Banka, Chief Operating Officer, Zostel, a hostel chain catering to backpackers.

Beyond the travel industry, Pawan Goyal, chief business officer at Naukri.com sees a “bright spot”  in the banking sector. In fact, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and healthcare sectors clocked 7 per cent YoY growth each, in September with branch manager and financial consultant roles in maximum demand, the report said. Oil and gas and auto sectors also recorded 6 per cent growth each in September compared to the same month last year, said the report.

The report also stated that non-metro cities continued to outshine the metros, with Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Jaipur registering 4 per cent, 3 per cent, and 2 per cent growth, respectively, in hiring in September 2023 over the same month last year. 

Interestingly, the job market has shown preferences for experienced professionals. The hiring for professionals with more than 16 years of experience jumped about 29 per cent in September 2023 over the corresponding month last year, while the hiring for freshers shrunk by 10% in September 2023.

However, as mentioned the overall picture of white collar hiring has not been so dazzling otherwise, going down from 3103 in September 2022 to 2835 in September 2023, with sectors such as IT (-43 per cent), real estate and property (-26 per cent), BPO/ITES (- 25 per cent), and FMCG (23 per cent) playing the laggards.