IT sector recruitment up by 8% in Sept, major focus on re-skilling: Survey

In a buoyant employment market information technology, telecom and health care industries have emerged as top hiring sectors witnessing three per cent growth in each for September 2017, according to a survey.

In case of IT sector, software engineers, sales and business development and human resource professionals were most in demand, according to TimesJobs' RecruiteX survey for September 2017.

The temp and flexi-hiring in IT has seen growth, thus pushing up the overall demand index of the sector, it added.

Besides, the survey also revealed that there was a year-on-year increase of eight per cent in the health care sector.

"Amid the reports of mass layoffs, it's exciting to see the growth in recruitment index for the IT sector. There is no doubt that volume of jobs has been impacted by automation, however, new jobs are also being created and some are also getting refurbished, for which the larger focus is on re-skilling," TimesJobs Business Head Ramathreya Krishnamurthi said.

The industry focus for fresh hires is mostly on niche skills around new digital tools and services, Krishnamurthi added.

Further the survey said in terms of location Hyderabad has topped the charts.

Among key locations, Hyderabad posted the highest rise of 13 per cent in talent demand followed by Bengaluru, which witnessed a rise of six per cent in hiring activity and Chennai by 5 per cent.

Ahmedabad posted nine per cent rise in talent demand.

Among the states, Arunachal Pradesh recorded 30 per cent growth and Andhra Pradesh 19 per cent.

While hiring dropped by nine per cent in Gujarat and seven per cent in Maharashtra, in September 2017.

It also found that senior management hiring grew the most, with jobs for over 10 years of experience witnessing an average rise of three per cent in September, when compared with August 2017.

In year-on-year analysis the hiring for 10-20 years of experience bracket rose by 10 per cent and for over 20 years of experience the demand increase was four per cent for the September 2016-September 2017 period, it added.