The Monster Employment Index (MEI) is a monthly measure of demand of jobs through the internet, which is based on real time review of thousands of job openings from various employers selected from a large portion that represents the career web sites and other job listings over the internet. It is not the mirror reflection of the trend of one of the source. It is an average measure of the trend in job listings through out the country.

Continued growth in recruitment activity in India in the year 2011

The Index in India observes a continued increase in recruitment activity from an annual perspective, with sectors such as telecom, Information technology and financial services leading the recruitment activity. According to Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com, India, companies are cautious with recruitment activities in the present economic condition. This is evident from the drop in the online demand levels from October to November.

Year over year trends in various sectors

During the period with in November 2010 and November 2011, the recruitment process through internet increased in 18 out of the 27 industry sectors as observed by the index.

Increase in growth in the telecom sector

The Telecom or Internet service provider sector witnessed the greatest increase, by 34 per cent. The industry topped in all the 27 sectors in annual growth. The rate of growth demonstrated significant increase from July 2011.

Increase in growth in the Banking, Financial services and insurance sector

The Banking, Financial services, insurance marked a significant increase after a slowdown in the previous month. It is as a result of rapid growth in the insurance growth. The sector registered a growth of 15 percent.

Increase in growth in the Information sector

The Information Technology sector, which includes both hardware and software, experienced a growth of 19 per cent. The sector registered a growth of 31 per cent in the month of October 2011, but dipped to 19 per cent growth in November 2011.

Decline in logistics and transportation sector

The logistics and transportation sector registered a decline of 5 per cent over the year. The sector has demonstrated a rise during October-November, but still could not result in a year on year growth.

Decline in Printing/packaging sector

The printing/packaging industry demonstrated the most significant decline in November with a dip of 19 per cent.

Other sectors recording growth

The other sectors that registered growth in hiring over the year are home appliances (up by 28 per cent), import/export (up by 24 per cent), and travel and tourism (up by 19 per cent).

Other sectors recording decline

The sectors that registered decline in hiring over the year are government/PSU/Defense (down by 7 per cent), media and entertainment (down by 9 per cent), and advertising, market research, public relations (down by 12 per cent).

Year over year trend in occupation

In the occupation year over year trend, the online demand increased above the previous year level in 12 out of 13 occupational groups.

The arts or the creative group registered an increase of 30 per cent and topped among all the occupation groups with growth for four consecutive months. Customer service demonstrated the most notable month on month growth with 19 per cent growth among all the occupation groups.

The demand for the groups such as Finance and Accounts (increase by 13 per cent); software, hardware, telecom (increase by 10 per cent); Health care (increase by 19 per cent) eased further between October and November.

Online demand for Marketing and communications went down by one per cent when compared to the previous year. The group has demonstrated negative growth November and is the only one group negative growth.

Geographic trend

The online recruitment activity has witnessed a growth in 12 out of 13 locations as monitored by the index.

Bangalore demonstrated a positive growth with 17 per cent and leads all other cities in growth. Mumbai recorded a decline of one per cent followed by a fourth consecutive month of dip.

M E I in the United States

The M E I in the United States recorded a 10 per cent growth in online recruitment in November 2011. The growth in the industries is led by transportation and warehousing; while the growth in retail sector dropsafter a significant increase in October. The steepest decline was recorded in public administration with a drop of 21 per cent over the year. Positive annual growth was recorded in all the metros. While Cincinnati and Indianapolis registered the highest growth rate, Boston, New York and Los Angeles registered the lowest growth over the year.

M E I in the Middle East

Demand for online recruitment increased in 6 out of the 7 in the Middle East. The region registered a growth of 7 per cent as per the index. The sectors that witnessed fastest growth are logistics and retail including trade. Experts say that Saudi Arabia along with Qatar and United Arab Emirates will drive the market. Based on the recent trends in employment in the region, Saudi, followed by Qatar will lead the region in the creation of job opportunities. Saudi Arabia will lead the region outpacing all other countries by a huge margin. The GDP of KSA has grown at a rate of 5 per cent every year since 1969, and is always considered as the driving force in the region.

The present trend observes that Saudi and United Arab Emirates have witnessed the largest annual growth rate. The recent index released in October, for a period of one year, online opportunities increased in six out of the seven countries. Among the seven countries, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia recorded the highest growth rate with 49 per cent, outpacing all other countries. The United Arab Emirates registered a growth of 7 per cent in all sectors in monthly growth.

Most of the important regions across the world have recorded a growth in the online demand for recruitment even at the time of slowdown in markets such as the US. It is expected that the demand will further increase in countries such as India, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar as the economy is in a state growth.