IT, BPO hiring continues to be strong despite slowdown – Naukri index

Naukri September hiring trends

New jobs posted on Naukri.com, India’s largest recruitment website, showed an increase of 8% in September compared to the same month last year. However, the headline number was boosted by strong demand for IT and BPO professionals, even as other sectors showed weakness.

The biggest declines were shown in the automobile sector, which saw 20% fewer new jobs posted this September compared to last year, and by the financial service industry.

New jobs posted by the insurance industry fell 8% while those listed by banks fell 5%.

The machinery and industrial products sector too saw a decline of 6% in the number of new jobs posted.

Somewhat surprisingly, the construction/engineering/cement/metals segment showed an increase of 8%.

Overall index (Aug 2008 =1000)

SILVER LINING

The overall numbers on Naukri tend to be dominated by the IT industry, which tends to make use of online classifieds for recruitment to a much larger extent that other industries.

New jobs posted by the IT/software segment saw a 33% jump, while those of BPO saw a 19% increase, helping lift the overall index.

The strong performance of IT and BPO sectors was also reflected in the geographical distribution of these new jobs.

Hyderabad saw the biggest increase in hiring in September, with a 25% jump, followed by Bangalore at 16% and Kolkata at 15%.

Chennai reflected an increase of just 2%, while Mumbai posted an increase of 3% and Delhi 5%.

ROLES IN DEMAND

Software-related rolls were in demand during the month, while both marketing and on-ground engineering roles — such as production engineering and site-engineering — saw declines of 4%-5%.

The objective of Naukri JobSpeak is to measure hiring activity across various industries, cities, functional areas and experience levels.

Newly posted jobs are compared to what was seen in August 2008, which is given an index value of 1,000. Subsequent monthly indices are compared to data from August 2008.

GEO-SPLIT

All major cities witnessed positive growth in hiring activity during the month of September ’19. This was led by increased hiring activity in cities like Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Delhi/NCR: Hiring activity in the capital city witnessed a rise of +5%. BPO, Pharma and IT – Software grew by +14% and +36% and +18% while Auto and IT – Hardware saw a dip of -45% and -10% respectively. Hiring for mid-management roles grew by +8% while hiring for entry-level roles saw a dip of -1%.

Bangalore: Overall hiring activity in Bangalore grew by +16%. This was largely fuelled by robust growth in IT – Software (+50%), IT – Hardware (+31%) and Accounting (+125%). There was positive YoY growth across all experience bands with hiring for mid-level executives (+25%) and mid-management roles (+24%) leading the way.

Mumbai: Recruitment in Mumbai showed an increase of +3% during September ‘19. Hiring for IT-Software and BPO industries increased by +34% and +18% while Banking (-16%) continued to dip. Hiring for roles in functional areas like ITES and Pharma saw an increase of +14% and +13% respectively. While hiring for entry-level executives (+4%) and mid-level executives (+4%) witnessed an increase, mid-management (-3%), senior management (-13%) and leadership (-21%) hiring saw a YoY dip in growth rates.

Hyderabad: Hyderabad recorded the highest growth rate of +25% amongst all major cities during September ‘19. This positive growth has been led by a significant increase in IT hiring – IT-Software (+53%) and IT- Hardware (+44%). FMCG (+66%) and Pharma (+53%) also contributed to Hyderabad’s robust growth Hiring for mid-level executive and mid-management roles grew by +42% and +37% respectively.

Pune: Pune saw a +5% rise in recruitment activity. This growth has been led by increased hiring in IT – Software (+21%) and Accounting (+69%). Hiring for entry-level roles remained flat whereas hiring for mid-management roles (+7%) showed the maximum increase.

Chennai: Overall hiring in Chennai experienced a rise of +2%. Accounting, BPO and IT – Software saw a rise of +70%, +59% and +10% respectively whereas industries like Auto and Banking experience a drop of -29% and -23% respectively. While entry-level roles (+12%) and mid-level executive roles (+8%) saw an increase in hiring activity, middle – management (-2%), senior management (-14%) and leadership roles (-19%) experienced negative YoY growth.