Small cities, towns emerge as big hiring zones: survey

Small cities and towns are emerging as the new big hiring zones for many sectors, especially engineering and manufacturing, because of their lower attrition rates, says a survey.

According to the survey by recruitment tendering platform MyHiringClub.Com, hiring activities grew by 27% in Tier-II cities such as Pune and Hyderabad during the January-June period of 2011 as compared to the year-ago period.

In addition, 16% growth in recruitment was witnessed in Tier-III cities like Jaipur, Ghaziabad and Kochi during the first half of the 2011 from the year-ago period.

"Tier II and III cities are witnessing growth in recruitment activity compared to metro cities," said MyHiringClub.Com CEO Rajesh Kumar.

Tier-II and III cities seem to be gaining ground, compared to the metros as companies continue to look at them as cost-effective destinations.

"The main reason to hire from these cities is rising salaries and high attrition experienced from hiring in metros," Kumar added.

Manufacturing and engineering, retail, FMCG, insurance and banking, and IT/ITeS are major sectors that saw maximum hiring from smaller cities during the period under review and the survey expects that similar hiring trend will continue during the second half of the year as well.

In terms of sectoral analysis, the manufacturing and engineering space accounted for 31% of the total hiring from Tier II and III cities, followed by retail (23%), insurance, banking and other financial services (19%), FMCG (19%), IT and ITes (17%), telecom (11%) and infrastructure (9%).

The survey was conducted among 321 employees and 769 recruitment consultants across 12 industry segments (healthcare, infrastructure, hospitality, real estate and construction, BFSI, IT and ITeS, training and consulting, FMCG, telecom and automobile).