White-collar hiring activity in India experienced a significant decline of 9 percent year-on-year in October, primarily due to the impact of the Diwali-Dussehra festive holidays on recruitment efforts, a recent report indicates. The findings come from the Naukri JobSpeak Index, which tracks job market trends based on new job postings and searches conducted by recruiters on the Naukri.com resume database.
The report highlights that while the festive season contributed to a general slowdown in hiring, certain sectors managed to buck this trend. Notably, the Accounting and Finance sector saw a 15 percent increase in hiring, followed by the Education sector with a 13 percent rise, and the BPO/ITES sector growing by 6 percent.
In the education sector, the growth was largely attributed to the hiring of fresh graduates and positions in startups. This upward momentum was evident across various regions, with Hyderabad contributing a 47 percent increase, Chennai at 34 percent, and Bengaluru at 31 percent.
Demand for professionals in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning roles also showed robust growth, with a remarkable 33 percent year-on-year increase in hiring for these positions. Conversely, other key sectors like Information Technology saw a contraction of 15 percent, and the banking sector experienced a 24 percent decline in hiring activity.
The report further revealed that in the IT sector, companies focused on emerging technologies, including those involved in blockchain and cryptocurrency, recorded a substantial 60 percent growth in hiring compared to the previous year. Additionally, hiring rates among IT unicorns remained stable, indicating stronger resilience compared to foreign multinational corporations, which faced a 14 percent hiring decline, and global capability centers, which saw a 15 percent drop.
Moreover, the demand for specialized and high-skill talent continued to rise, with certain roles experiencing exceptional growth. For instance, hiring for Machine Learning Engineers surged by an impressive 139 percent, highlighting the growing importance of AI expertise across various industries. Other specialized positions that saw significant increases include search engineers at 62 percent, medical billers and coders at 41 percent, transition managers at 35 percent, and manufacturing engineers at 32 percent.
Dr. Pawan Goyal, the Chief Business Officer of Naukri, noted, “The moderation in October hiring was expected, given the clustering of major festive holidays like Diwali and Dussehra in the same month. It”s encouraging to see the Education and BPO sectors sustain their growth momentum alongside continued demand for specialized, high-skill roles.”
