Global hiring robust in 2021 with hybrid working now mainstream

Companies across the globe ramped up hiring in 2021 with hybrid/remote work/work-from-home (WFH) becoming mainstream. Technology, Retail, and Pharma saw significant increase in job postings and Travel & Tourism, Banking & Payments emerged as high growth sectors. Companies accelerated automation with themes such as digitalisation, blockchain, and industrial automation seeing more jobs as compared to previous year. Hiring talent became increasingly difficult as days to close jobs increased. Companies offered incentives such as sign-on bonuses to attract talent, finds GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s ‘Global Hiring Report 2021 – Signals & Trends’ that the US had most active jobs coupled with healthy growth. Other key countries include the UK and India. The US headquartered companies posted most jobs in India (outside the US), followed by the UK, Canada and China.

The report also finds a strong correlation between the active jobs index and the official country employment data, an excellent signal for financial markets to pick early leads.

Rajeev Gupta, Director of Financial Markets Data at GlobalData, says: “Companies increased leadership hiring in 2021. While most listings were in the US, the UK along with markets such as Australia, France, and China also experienced an increase. Digitalization, ESG initiatives, and strategies such as direct-to-consumer (DTC) were some of the focus areas.”

Gupta concludes: “Jobs not only provide conclusive evidence on companies’ strategic plans and product initiatives but can be imperative to generate hidden alpha and unearth macro insights on a near real-time basis.”