Hiring trend a roller coaster ride in 2022

- First half of this year was better in terms of employee addition

- Startup space was the worst affected with funding winter

- IT firms are cautiously hiring amid slowdown fears, falling attrition

- Fresher onboarding is getting delayed

- First half of next year may not be very different in terms of hiring

Bengaluru: Hiring trend in 2022 witnessed a lot of volatility with the year beginning with strong momentum, which fizzled out towards the end across IT firms, global capability centres (GCCs) and startups.

Overall employee addition during January-March period was robust with all technology firms onboarding staffers at brisk pace. But Russia-Ukraine war, funding slowdown seen in startups and slowdown fears impacted overall sentiment negatively from April onwards.

"First quarter of 2022, hiring momentum was strong and nobody believed that there would be winter in hiring. But with startup funding drying up, recessionary fears and war, hiring got impacted in IT companies, GCCs and startups. It slowly dropped from April and in October-December period, it has dropped a lot," Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO of HR consultancy firm CIEL H, told Bizz Buzz.

Hiring in the startup space was the worst affected with many of these new age companies doing mass layoffs this year. More than 20,000 staffers lost their jobs amid funding winter in 2022.

"In the startup space, segments like cryptocurrency-related companies and edtechs were the most impacted. Crypto meltdown impacted hiring in the entire ecosystem. Candidates today are not really interested to work for the development areas in crypto. Similarly, edtech meltdown, which happened in the first quarter of 2021, became prominent from April-June period with reopening," said Mishra. Among the IT services companies, overall headcount addition was strong in the first half of this year. With attrition number hovering more than 20 per cent for most large and mid-tier companies, IT firms were on a hiring spree till June quarter. However, things slowly changed as IT firms added less number of staffers in July-September period amid demand slowdown fears. Similarly, onboarding of freshers got delayed by IT firms towards the second half of this year.

However, HR experts pointed out that campus hiring from premier campuses like IITs and IIMs remained upbeat, indicating all is not lost yet.

"We saw campus hiring, especially in premier campuses, has beaten everyone's expectations in terms of number of offers received and the one crore offers. People didn't expect these would be so good. This points to the direction that employers have not lost hope. They are thinking that things will be better next year," Mishra said.

While there is no clarity on hiring trend for the first half of 2023, most reports point to a gradual recovery towards the second half of next year.

Hiring momentum in Q1 of 2022 was strong and nobody believed that there would be winter in hiring. But with startup funding drying up, recessionary fears and war, hiring got impacted in IT companies, GCCs and startups. It slowly dropped from April and in October-December period, it has dropped a lot

- Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO, HR consultancy CIEL H