The travel and tourism sector is still reeling from the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, according to the sector’s hiring data unveiled by Indeed, the world’s #1 job site, on World Tourism Day. According to Indeed, which is a real-time indicator of labour market activity, job postings and clicks were down by 14% in August 2021 as compared to August 2020.

Further, when compared to a pre-pandemic August 2019, hiring activity has witnessed a sharp 62% decline, while job seekers’ interest also plummeted as clicks for these jobs saw a de-growth of 36%.  

While hiring activity in the sector spiked between November 2020 and January 2021, it immediately began to fall from February 2021, as international and domestic travel was severely impacted due to the second wave of the pandemic. Though clicks seemed to have witnessed a gradual recovery after July, they still witnessed a 48% decline between February 2021 and August 2021. Job postings also witnessed a continuous decline, registering 30% degrowth between February 2021 and August 2021.

A city-wise analysis found that Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru led sectoral hiring, while the maximum number of travel and tourism job aspirants emerged from Delhi NCR, Chandigarh, and Kolkata.

Commenting on the findings, Mr. Sashi Kumar, Head of Sales, Indeed India, said, “With the second wave of the pandemic impacting the sector’s initial recovery, the year gone by has been the hardest for the travel and tourism sector.  However, we can anticipate strong headwinds, on the back of India offering free visas for inbound international travel, countries opening borders to vaccinated tourists, a robust nationwide vaccination drive, and the upcoming festive season. Together, these factors have created a favourable environment to open up the sector and engage more talent.”