Based on a study by specialist staffing solutions company Xpheno, the number of job openings is on a rise in tier-2 cities but has been been facing a decline in major Indian cities. The government classifies cities with a population in the range of 50,000 to 1,00,000 as tier-2 cities. Tier-1 cities are those that have a population of 1,00,000 and above.
As per the study shared with ET, around 12,500 active job openings were available in tier-2 locations last month whereas there were 1,40,000 job postings in big cities. Though the number of active job openings in tier-2 locations are less compared to those in mega cities, they are fast-growing, led by startups, IT companies, BFSI firms, and health and wellness centres.
"Just like the new normal times (post Covid-19 outbreak) have enabled 'work from anywhere' for employees, it has also encouraged employers to broaden their hiring outreach without any location constraint," Manoj Shikarkhane, chief human resources officer of LTIMindtree told The Economic Times.
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The study that tracked job portals, internal company postings and LinkedIn, revealed that active job postings decreased by 16 per cent year on year in January in top cities while they went up by 12 per cent in about 30 tier-2 locations.
Companies like Tech Mahindra, Airtel, LTIMindtree, and MakeMyTrip are hiring more from smaller towns, with higher stickiness or lower attrition rates, diverse talent pool and lower costs being listed as the reasons for this trend.
The head of workforce research and analytics at Xpheno, Prasadh M S told the publication that enterprises on the talent hunt look for professionals with low "friction" to onboard employment. “On this front, tier-2 and tier-3 locations have become good catchment areas for tech and non-tech talent alike," he said.
Online hiring and interviewing are also going a long way in helping out companies evaluate and onboard candidates from across the country.
The Chief People Officer of Bharti Airtel, Amrita Padda told ET that hiring talent from tier-2 and tier-3 locations will help increase the regional diversity in addition to offering a diverse range of career possibilities to the bright young talents that are based there.
MakeMyTrip has expanded its campus recruitment program and has started exploring more campuses other than the ones based in metro cities.
Meanwhile, IT and consulting services company, Tech Mahindra, is setting up physical centres in small cities which the company believes will help them diversify talent.