India Inc's hiring activity up 57% in September, according to Naukri's JobSpeak

Mumbai: India Inc's hiring activity surpassed pre-Covid levels last month, buoyed by accelerated pace of vaccination, rise in consumer demand and a host of positive economic indicators leading to increased confidence among organisations, according to jobs portal Naukri.com.

Naukri JobSpeak, a monthly hiring activity index based on job listings on Naukri.com, grew for the third consecutive month in September to hit a record high of 2,753, growing 21% over September 2019 levels and 57% year on year.

"India is witnessing a never-seen-before activity in hiring," said Pawan Goyal, chief business officer of Naukri.com.

"Fuelled by the demand for IT professionals, it truly is heartening to see the industries recover at the onset of the festive season. Majority of the sectors, cities and experience bands have recorded positive growth," he said.

Hiring in the IT-software/software services sector grew 138% y-o-y in September led by an accelerated pace digitisation post pandemic.

Even sectors like hospitality and retail, which were among the sectors most impacted by the pandemic, saw significant growth of 82% and 70%, respectively, year on year with several hotels and physical store outlets across the country gradually reopening.

Hiring activity has also grown in education (+53%), banking/financial services (+43%) and telecom (+37%) sectors as compared to a year ago, the latest Naukri JobSpeak report said.

Metro cities recorded 88% annual growth during September, surpassing tier 2 cities that grew by 30%.

Over 76,000 clients use Naukri.com.

Continuous positive growth of the IT-software/software services sector has enabled major IT hubs to outperform other cities in the annual growth charts. Bengaluru (+133%), Hyderabad (+110%), Pune (+95%) and Chennai (+85%) recorded the highest y-o-y growth in September.