Indian hiring activity jumped 13% in Jan 2014: Naukri

Reeling under the worst economic slowdown in over a decade, the Indian job market is finally showing signs of picking up, albeit slowly, if a specially-designed index of leading job portal Naukri.com is anything to go by.

The Naukri Job Speak Index, which tracks monthly hiring activities online, rose 13 percent in January 2014, compared to December 2013.

In metros, Kolkata and Hyderabad witnessed the maximum improvement in hiring trends with a rise of 29 percent and 20 percent, respectively, in January 2014 over December 2013.

Professionals working in insurance sector saw maximum growth with the sectoral index showing a 26 percent jump on a month-on-month basis.

“The upcoming general elections, coupled with improvement in the global economic conditions, will help to ameliorate the hiring landscape in India, said Ambarish Raghuvanshi, Group President Finance and CFO Info Edge (India).

The Naukri Job Speak Index for the past three months has grown at an average of 4 percent month-on-month, Raghuvanshi said. “Post elections, companies will probably start their expansion process, which will concomitantly generate demand for talent. The hiring scenario in India in 2014 is likely to be better then it has been in the last two years,” he added.

Survey Findings

According to Naukri.com analysis, amongst industries, IT Software and BPO have continued to witness growth with the index moving up by 18 percent and 13 percent, respectively, on a month-on-month basis.

Oil and Gas, Pharma and Banking & Financial sector have also witnessed growth, but at a more modest pace with the index moving up by 1 percent M-o-M.

Telecom has seen a decline with the index moving down sharply by 23 percent. Auto sector has also seen a marginal decline of 3 percent on a month-on-month basis.

The demand for professionals working in sales and business development and project management continued to grow with the index moving up by 19 percent and 18 percent, respectively, in January, as compared to December.

BPO and IT sector have also witnessed an increase with the index moving up by 16 percent and 12 percent M-o-M.

However, professionals working in banking sector have witnessed a decline with the index moving down by 3 percent.