Hiring activity almost flat, sees 3% growth sequentially in Sept: Report

With the onset of the festive season and easing of lockdown restrictions, the hiring activity has stabilised sequentially in September with a marginal growth of three per cent, according to a report.

In September, job postings remained nearly flat with just three per cent growth with 2,753 job postings compared with 2,673 during August, according to the report by Naukri JobSpeak.

The Naukri JobSpeak is a monthly index that calculates and records hiring activity based on the job listings on the Naukri.com website month-on-month (m-o-m).

The report further showed that sectors such as retail witnessed a 16 per cent jump in job postings and hospitality/travel grew 15 per cent leading the m-o-m growth in September.

The hiring activity has also grown in the accounting/finance (13 per cent), BPO/ITeS (12 per cent), and insurance and medical/healthcare sectors (11 per cent each) as compared to August, it noted.

New job openings in the technology sector are at an all-time high in September, said the report adding that after the second wave, hiring in the IT industry picked up in July and has maintained its ascent.

Sequentially, hiring activity went up by 4 per cent in September, indicating that the industry is on a growth trajectory that they plan to sustain, it added.

"During the second wave of COVID-19, we saw sequential numbers decline in April, stabilising at a fast pace on May 1. Since then, overall growth has been exponential during June-July, with growth in sectors like IT reaching an all-time high.

"Our outlook remains positive as incremental growth has sustained from August-September, showing signs of a healthier market that has come out stronger than the pre-COVID-19 period in 2019 across most sectors and cities," Naukri.com Chief Business Officer Pawan Goyal said.

Within metros, the report found out that hiring was led by Kolkata (10 per cent), Delhi-NCR (7 per cent) and Pune (6 per cent) in September compared with August.

The hiring activity grew 5 per cent in other metro cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad during the same period, the report noted.

Among the tier-II cities, Ahmedabad (11 per cent) recorded the highest growth followed by Kochi (10 per cent) and Vadodara (7 per cent), it said.

The hiring activity was flat in cities like Chandigarh, Coimbatore and Jaipur in September as compared to August, it added.