Fairfax-backed hiring services firm Quess Corp sees a gradual uptick in demand for blue and grey collar jobs in India after the Covid-19 pandemic pushed up the unemployment rates in the months of April and May.

The staffing firm, which had acquired online jobs platform Monster in 2018, estimates an annual potential of 60-65 million transactions in these segments (including migrant workers) as it launched an app based hiring platform called QJobs on Thursday.

“Blue-collar workers have been among the hardest hit in the wake of Covid-19 and the need of the hour is to ensure that the workers are able to find employment, based on where they are located and what they are able to do,” said Suraj Moraje, group CEO and executive director, Quess Corp.

Blue collar jobs typically include employment opportunities in industrial establishments and factories whereas grey collar jobs include low level tech jobs, entry level associates, BPO specialists, delivery personnel etc.

The bulk of demand is expected to come from sectors such as e-commerce, telecom, re etail, manufacturing and security services, according to the firm. Sectors such as banking and fintech are also seeing a growing demand for back office roles. The annual potential estimate factors in new additions, unemployment and attrition in these segments. Around 56 per cent of the hiring will happen from job portals followed by referral programmes and recruitment agencies.

“We think that the worst is behind us. Going forward we should see healthy recruiting behaviour across segments,” he said in response to a query from The Telegraph adding that the company has seen more that 1000 employers who have already come on board on QJobs.

In the beta phase, the app already has over 70,000 jobs posted across the country and has crossed more than 150,000 installs.

“With QJobs, we aim to offer a smooth and seamless job search experience that helps job seekers find the best suited job as per their requirements, while also ensuring that employers have access to a large pool of talent,” said Ajit Issac, CMD, Quess Corp.