Overall job market sees an 11% dip in April, IT worst hit with a 24% fall

Major negative impact felt across BPO, telecom, insurance and construction sectors

With top IT firms laying off professionals, the IT-software industry was hit the most with a 24 per cent fall in hiring in April this year as compared to April 2016, according to a survey by job site Naukri.com.

"The overall job market saw an 11 per cent fall in new jobs, with IT-software industry most hit. IT-Software industry was hit the most with a 24 per cent decline in hiring in April as compared to April 2016," the Naukri Job Speak Index said.

April jobs index saw year-on-year fall in major metros -- Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, it added.

Hiring activity saw a fall in telecom, BPO, insurance and construction sectors during April as compared to April 2016.

Key industries like construction and BPO/ITES saw a 10 per cent and 12 per cent fall, respectively, while banking saw a 11 per cent increase in hiring during April 2017 as compared to April 2016, it said.

Commenting on the report, V. Suresh, Chief Sales Officer, Naukri.com said: "As predicted earlier, job market continues to be volatile and the Jobspeak index in April has shown a negative growth of 11 per cent (YOY)."

"Though major negative impact seems to be in sectors like IT/BPO/telecom/insurance and construction, there seems to be an air of caution across all sectors and this volatility is likely to continue for a few more months before the markets could move north again."

Six out of the eight metro cities tracked saw a decrease in hiring activity in April.

The index for Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru saw a dip of 28 per cent, 18 per cent, 29 and 28 per cent, respectively, while Kolkata and Ahmedabad saw an increase of 10 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively, as compared to April, 2016, the survey noted.

The maximum number of new jobs (3 per cent month-on-month) were created in the 0-3 years' category.

Senior management hiring fell, with jobs for 13-16 years of experience witnessing a fall of 2 per cent when compared with March, 2017.

While hiring in junior management remained buoyant, mid-management hiring (8-12 years of experience) witnessed a decrease of 3 per cent during April.