SMBs emerge leading job creators in 2022, tier-2 cities take the pie

Yearender 2022: Evolving out of the Covid pandemic, the year 2022 proved to be better for economics, at least if compared to 2020, and 2021. The year saw people returning to offices with employers accelerating the hiring activity, though with a changed mindset and lessons learned during the Covid.

According to apna.co – a job and professional networking platform – the current year saw an improvement in the hiring activity majorly in Small and Mid-size Businesses (SMBs) and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

The company witnessed a 25 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) increase in SMB/MSME employer base in 2022, creating 2.1 million jobs throughout the year.

60 percent increase in jobs posted by SMBs

According to apna.co, jobs posted by SMBs clocked a 60 percent surge year-on-year. These emerging small businesses have been from across tier 1 and 2 cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru and also from Pune, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur. Employers from these cities posted more than 2.1 million jobs in 2022 alone.

An all-time surge in user base in 2022

This year more than 12 million professionals registered on the platform, leading to a 67 percent YoY user growth in 2022. Recruiters facilitated 3 job applications every second in 2022.

It predicts that this surge will continue in 2023, as a majority of the new users who registered on the platform were from tier 1 cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. The platform also witnessed a surge in users from tier 2 cities like Patna, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Bhopal, and Guwahati.

Tier 2 cities led the pie in hiring most gig workers

The tier 2 cities that saw the maximum job applications were Bhopal, Indore, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi, and Kanpur, these cities had 40 percent of the total jobs posted by SMBs throughout the year.

Despite markets opening up, professionals are still preferring work-from-home job opportunities for better flexibility and work-life balance.

With organizations embracing the new normalcy post covid, professionals continue to consider flexibility, work-life balance, and upskilling as the key focus areas, even more so at present. These new trends have led to a massive transformation in the workforce.

Commenting on the growth, Manas Singh, Chief Business Officer, apna. co, said, “2022 has been a year of tremendous growth for the rising workforce. While we observed a surge in the user base, it’s elating to know that around 2 lakh new employers trusted our services for their hiring requirements The emergence of tier-II cities becoming epicenters for opportunities has also been phenomenal. We believe that the evolving ecosystem of the rising workforce led by SMBs and MSMEs will become an integral contributor to the growth of the Indian economy.  At apna, we will continue to support millions of small businesses, and professionals as we leap towards #AcceleratingIndia, one of the largest economies in the world”.

Cities such as Ahmednagar, Meerut, Puducherry, Jalandhar, Kota, Udaipur, and others contributed to around 20,000 new employers and 1.5 million new users on apna. With more than 30 million users and 3 lacs employer partners, the platform is accessible across 74 Indian cities.

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