White collar hiring improving on rise in demand from oil & gas, banking, FMCG sectors: Report

New Delhi: White collar hiring has begun improving steadily on the back of major sectors like Oil and Gas, Banking and FMCG, a report said on Wednesday.

Hiring activity grew by 6 percent in May compared to April driven by sectors like Healthcare and the Travel and Hospitality, according to the report..

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White collar hiring, however, was down by 2 percent compared to the same month last year.

Most sectors reported mid-single-digit growths, however, decline in hiring in IT (0 percent YoY), BPO (3 percent) and Education (5 percent) dragged down the overall Naukri JobSpeak Index, it stated.

Major sectors such as Oil and Gas (14 percent), Banking (12 percent) and FMCG (17 percent) notched up healthy growth, while Healthcare and Travel and Hospitality, each showcased a robust 8 percent growth, said the report.

Smaller cities continued to outperform major metropolitan areas, and there was notable demand for senior professionals, contributing to a healthy year-on-year growth in opportunities for experienced candidates, it added.

"The consistent job growth in the AI-ML domain stands out as a major positive and signals that the Indian economy and its talent pool is well aligned with the global tailwind on AI. Moreover, despite the May index staying within 2 percent of 2023 base, we saw healthy growth in most Non-IT sectors, cementing our job market's diversified footprint further," Naukri.com Chief Business Officer Pawan Goyal said.

The Naukri JobSpeak is a monthly Index representing the state of the Indian job market and hiring activity based on new job listings and job-related searches by recruiters on the resume database of Naukri.com platform.

The report further revealed that the hiring in mini-metros continued to outpace major metropolitan areas.

This trend highlights the growing economic vibrancy and employment opportunities in smaller urban centres, driven by factors such as urbanisation, infrastructure development, and decentralisation of economic activities, it stated.

Non-metro cities like Surat (23 percent) and Raipur (22 percent) emerged as hiring hotspots, while metro cities like Delhi-NCR, Chennai, and Hyderabad witnessed stable hiring trends with a slight improvement in the hiring trend in Pune, it added.

Meanwhile, the report stated that the demand for experienced professionals remained high, with roles for candidates with over 16 years of experience clocking a remarkable 23 percent surge in hiring activity.

In contrast, the job market for freshers remains relatively flat, highlighting the challenges faced by early-career professionals in securing entry-level positions amidst stiff competition and evolving skill requirements, added the report.

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