Blue-collar hiring start-up Apna reports 60% jump in job postings in 2022

Tier 2 cities recorded most job postings by small and medium businesses, says company

Apna, a hiring portal for blue-collar workers, recorded a 60 per cent jump in jobs posted by small and medium businesses (SMB) in 2022 compared to last year, it said on Monday.

Small businesses in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Ahmedabad and Jaipur posted more than 2.1 million jobs in 2022. More than 12 million professionals registered on the platform, leading to a 67 per cent year-on-year user growth. Tier 2 cities Bhopal, Indore, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi and Kanpur made the most job postings, accounting for 40 per cent of total by all SMBs in 2022.

“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,” the company said.

Apna.co said around 20 new users registered on its platform every minute, and three job applications were facilitated every second in 2022. It added that the surge will continue in 2023, as a majority of the new users who registered on its platform were from tier-1 cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. The platform also witnessed a surge in users from cities like Patna, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Bhopal, and Guwahati.

“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,” said Manas Singh, chief business officer of Apna.

The firm has entered 27 new markets in 2022, contributing to more than 9 per cent of the overall employer base. Ahmednagar, Meerut, Puducherry, Jalandhar, Kota, Udaipur and other cities contributed to around 20,000 new employers and 1.5 million new users of the platform. The portal has more than 30 million users and 300,000 employer partners.