The second quarter (Q2) of 2023 saw many companies across the globe announcing layoffs amidst a continuous decline in job postings. Major players, like JP Morgan Chase & Co, Walmart, Credit Suisse Group AG, and Ford Motor Co., were among the companies that have announced job cuts. Despite this, retail, technology and communications industries exhibited resilience. Key themes driving hiring trends were big data, cloud, and AI, according to the Job Analytics Database of GlobalData.
GlobalData’s latest report, “Global Hiring Activity – Trends & Signals Q2 2023,” revealed that the global hiring activity (posted jobs) continued to decline by 15% year over year and 6% quarter over quarter in Q2 2023.
The Middle East and Africa as well as South and Central America experienced an increase in job postings. Countries with notable growth in new jobs include Japan, Czech Republic, and Brazil.
“Power, health care, and foodservice had higher year-on-year growth in job postings,” said Sherla Sriprada, business fundamentals analyst at GlobalData. “Pharmaceuticals, retailing, construction, and automotive were among the key industries with higher job postings. Abbott Laboratories, Black & Veatch Corp., and Robert Bosch GmbH were among the top recruiters during the same period.”
In terms of themes, e-Commerce, social media, edtech, and 3D printing were the other notable themes with higher job postings. The launch of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT and Bard, led to a substantial increase in AI-related job opportunities.
“A remarkable 106% YoY growth in roles with exposure to enterprise social networking and collaboration platforms serves as an example supporting the adoption of these technologies,” Sriprada said.
Other skills in demand include office productivity applications, application life cycle management, application platforms and containers, business intelligence, data discovery tools, and database management.
