Digital transformation is driving demand for tech skills: LinkedIn India’s Ashutosh Gupta

As per LinkedIn’s India Labour Market Insights, hiring in the country was up 63% in the quarter ended June compared to the same quarter in 2019.

India is the fastest growing market for LinkedIn with the country registering a 44% jump in member growth in the last two years – to 92 million this year from 64 million in 2020.

“Digital transformation in India is very strong,” Gupta said. “All the companies across sectors are rethinking their business models. Be it small, medium or large enterprises, they are looking at transforming their businesses digitally, which is driving the demand for tech skills. So, a lot of hiring demand is driven by tech skills,” he said.

“Then there are certain sectors which were very subdued in the pandemic such as retail, travel, and hospitality. Now, in the last six months, we have personally seen how everyone is travelling and there is a lot of revenge spending. There is a rebound in these sectors, and they are hiring. From a jobseeker perspective, there are a few trends driving hiring such as the need for flexibility and a better work-life balance,” he added.

According to LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index, flexible work arrangements, financial wellness programmes, and a four-day work week make up the top three priorities of Indian professionals across each generation. LinkedIn is also witnessing a steady surge in demand for remote jobs on the platform. The percentage of job applications for remote jobs in India grew to around 21% in July from around 13% in July last year.

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As of March this year, 20% of all job postings on LinkedIn offered remote work options in India, up by 3.3x compared to March 2021.

Gupta said the pandemic has completely changed the future of work and the drive for flexibility is also changing the outlook of companies. “For companies, it is a moment of reckoning. A lot of companies are rethinking their policies and how they would want to engage with employees. I hope as companies hear about such data points, they think of incorporating them into their policies. Because this is what people want,” he added.

He said the value proposition of LinkedIn has evolved a lot and business messaging has seen huge traction. “There are so many business conversations happening on the platform and a huge amount of transactions are happening on messaging,” Gupta said. “I was talking to some startup founders, and they say a lot of funding decisions are happening through LinkedIn messaging. Some of these value propositions are sticky and they won’t change over a period of time. These are driving a lot of engagement on the platform.”