Oil & Gas sector clearly emerged as a hiring hotspot with a remarkable 31 per cent increase in new jobs compared to last year, the hiring activity in the IT sector stayed at 23 per cent below its level in May 2022

Naukri JobSpeak Index, one of the most accurate reflections of white-collar hiring in India, stood at 2849 in May 2023, up by 5% over last month and almost flat from its value of 2863 in May 2022. The relatively flat growth in index masks strong divergence in hiring trends across different sectors and geographies. While the Oil & Gas sector clearly emerged as a hiring hotspot with a remarkable 31 per cent increase in new jobs compared to last year, the hiring activity in the IT sector stayed at 23 per cent below its level in May 2022.

Oil & Gas, Real Estate, Banking and Pharma Sector led the hiring growth in May 2023

The Oil & Gas sector continued its bull run with 31 per cent y-o-y growth in new jobs compared to the 10-20 per cent growth numbers witnessed in the preceding few months. The sector's growth can be attributed to a renewed focus on energy security and refinery expansion. The roles witnessing a significant surge in demand included Production Engineers, Process Engineers, and Quality Auditors. A significant jump was observed in hiring for mid-level and senior roles in key cities such as Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune.

The Real Estate and Banking sectors continued to show positive hiring sentiments, registering 22 per cent and 14 per cent growth in hiring activities, respectively, compared to May last year. Construction-related roles such as Infrastructure Architect, Civil Engineer, and Site Supervisor experienced increased demand in the Real Estate sector. The banking sector witnessed a surge in demand for the roles of Relationship Managers and Credit Analysts. In terms of geography, the cities of Kolkata, Mumbai, and Ahmedabad witnessed the highest growth in real estate and banking jobs, where senior professionals with 12 years or more of experience remained the most sought-after candidates.

The Pharma sector emerged as another bright spot, recording a respectable 11 per cent growth in hiring activity compared to May last year. Hiring for niche roles such as Pharma Product Managers and Clinical Assistants drove the growth trajectory in this sector. Demand was specially high in the cities of Mumbai and Chennai with mid-level professionals being the most sought-after candidates.

Automobile and Hospitality were some of the other sectors witnessing positive hiring sentiments with 10% and 8% growth in the new jobs created compared to May last year.

The IT industry hiring remained an area of concern with 23 per cent decline in new jobs created compared to the boom times of May last year. The decline in hiring was witnessed across all types of IT companies including global tech giants, large IT services companies, tech-focused startups, and unicorns. Cities with heavy presence of IT-focused companies, such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune, were the hardest hit. Notwithstanding these challenges, niche roles such as Machine Learning Engineers and Big Data Engineers showed positive hiring trends, bucking the

negative trend across most other tech roles. Besides IT, sectors such as Retail, Education, Insurance, and BPO also showed cautious hiring sentiments with a dip of 21, 16, 15, and 14 per cent, respectively, in hiring trends compared to May 2022.

Emerging Hiring Epicenters: Non-Metro Cities Lead the Hiring Wave

Non-metro cities emerge as new hiring trendsetters, led by Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Jaipur, with 26, 22, and 17 per cent growth in hiring activity compared to May last year, primarily driven by Banking and Auto Sectors.

On the other hand, hiring activity stayed flat or declined marginally in large metros, except Mumbai and Delhi which recorded a 5 per cent growth in hiring activity in May 2023. This growth was primarily led by a hiring spree in specific sectors such as Real Estate & Telecom in Mumbai and the Healthcare & Auto sectors in Delhi.

Senior Professionals continue to be in high demand

The white-collar hiring market remained bullish for senior-level job seekers. In particular, professionals with 13-16 years and 16+ years of experience witnessed an increase in new job openings of 26 and 39 per cent, respectively, compared to May last year. The Education, Auto, and Oil sectors exhibited the highest hiring spree for senior professionals. Hiring for freshers and mid-level positions remained muted, with a dip of 7 per cent in activity as compared to May last year. Despite this dip, sectors such as Insurance and Healthcare continued to show positive hiring sentiments for freshers.

Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer of Naukri.com, comments, "The multi-sectoral growth in white-collar hiring across sectors such as Real Estate, Banking, Oil and Gas, and Pharma reflect the evolving and diversified nature of the Indian Economy."