Hiring for work-from-home jobs surges in India: Report

There has been a surge in hiring for remote jobs in India in the last few months and work from home jobs witnessed a three-fold jump as compared to pre COVID levels, a new report said on Tuesday.

Remote working has seen many employees enjoy greater flexibility and control over their personal and professional lives including saving on commute time. As a result, the work-from-home jobs have witnessed a seven-fold growth in applications in the last few months as compared to pre COVID times.

"Hiring for remote jobs too has seen a robust growth and has increased by three times as compared to pre COVID levels this year," according to the report by leading job portal Naukri.com.

Even the percentage contribution of WFH jobs has gone up four-fold in 2020 versus 2019 as a result of the global pandemic.

The keyword 'Work-From-Home' has been one of the top three most searched keywords by jobseekers in the last five months on Naukri.com platform.

"It's also interesting to note that traditional, office-based or on-ground roles such as sales/ business development and customer care agents are now being offered with WFH options," said Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer at Naukri.com.

Around half of remote job postings are from the BPO/ITES sector, resulting in robust growth of WFH jobs from the industry. IT-software, education/teaching and internet/e-commerce contribute to another quarter of work-from-home jobs.

"The WFH jobs have also emerged in unlikely sectors such as publishing, BFSI and education/teaching that have conventionally required the physical presence of the employee. However, the most impacted industries like travel and staffing continue to decline in hiring even in remote jobs," the report said.

"The WFH trend was also a recurring topic discussed in webinars, and saw many queries directed to industry experts from jobseekers on remote working jobs," the report added.