MUMBAI: Hiring activity in India has been on an upswing, with August seeing an 89% year-on-year growth. According to Naukri JobSpeak, hiring index was at 2673 last month, surpassing pre-pandemic levels of August 2019 by 24%.
Hiring was led by IT sector companies, growing 79% in August compared to August 2019. Jobs in the education sector also marked strong recovery, growing 102% and surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Other sectors that have now exceeded pre-pandemic numbers are real estate (15%), telecom (13%), medical/healthcare (8%), pharma/biotech (7%), insurance (6%), and BFSI (5%).
The ambiguous status of rules related to travel and hospitality has been an obstacle for the industry and the sector is still down by 53% in comparison to August 2019, but in contrast to the situation last year, when lockdown curbs were still in place, hiring in the sector rose 134% last month.
“With a fair share of setbacks in 2020, we can finally acknowledge a trend of overall recovery in the job market," said Pawan Goyal, chief business officer, Naukri.com, adding that while numbers in the January-May period were still in the red when compared to those of 2019, the positive growth trend started in June 2021.
"As a result of increased hiring, the requirement for HR/Admin professionals too has seen a substantial uptick indicative of growth plans across organisations," he added.
As major industries get on the track to recovery, hiring for certain roles too have picked up with increased movement across the market. Hiring for HR/Admin and IT-Software roles rose significantly year-on-year in August.
Demand for senior professionals with 8-12 years of experience saw the maximum year-on-year increase of 110% last month. Other experience bands such as 0-3 years (79%), 4-7 years (91%), and over 13 years (65%) also recorded commendable year-on-year growth.
At a city level, hiring in the top six metros grew an 39% August when compare with August 2019, led by IT hubs Bengaluru (66%), Hyderabad (61%), Pune (54%), and Chennai (30%). Delhi-NCR and Mumbai’s recovery has been slower in comparison, up by 16% and 4% respectively.
Tier-2 cities have also been experiencing a gradual recovery, cumulatively up 10%, led by Ahmedabad (27%) and Chandigarh (23%).
