Double-digit growth and much-celebrated schemes like UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) have not been able to produce the relative amount of employment in the aviation sector if one goes by the latest report by Indeed India, a website for finding jobs.

Job postings for flight attendants have fallen by 80 percent over the last five years starting from January 2014 and the steepest decline was seen in 2017 and 2018 when postings were down by almost 88 percent, the report has noted.

On the other hand, job seekers continued to rise as in terms of job searches, the last five years saw an overall increase of 41 percent, with a steep rise in 2014-2015, the report said.

“The past two years (January 2017 to December 2018) have seen job postings for flight attendants drop by 88 percent. With the aviation industry currently stretched for resources as well as skilled talent, disruptions in flight schedules have become the order of the day. Given the circumstances, it comes as no surprise that jobs in the sector have seen a drop, even as searches by job seekers for these roles remain largely stable,” Sashi Kumar, managing director, Indeed India said.

The sector has undergone major turbulence in recent times ranging from soaring crude oil prices to depreciating rupee, burdening the already stressed balance sheets of airlines and giving them little room for additional expenditure.

The rate of induction of aircraft is also a factor here as apart from IndiGo, which accounts for almost half of the country's current order-book, no other airline is adding planes to its fleet at a rapid scale.

The recent financial crisis at Jet Airways has further put a lot of current and future jobs in jeopardy as not only is the future of 220-odd MAX planes, which are on order, uncertain due to safety concerns and a headless long-term strategy, but with a reduced scale of operations, a sizeable amount of its workforce is set to look out for options in other carriers.

“However, as financial institutions plan to support the sector during this period, we can hope for recovery in the months ahead,” Kumar added.

First Published:Mar 28, 2019 3:20 PM IST