Small, medium cities grab 60% of jobs created in FY11

Medium and small cities like Pune, Agra and Meerut rather than top metros have emerged as hot destinations for job aspirants by clinching a lion's share; 60% of the total jobs created in the country last fiscal, an Assocham study said today.

Sector wise it was IT which had grabbed the biggest pie with 30% of the total employment generation share during the period, the industry chamber said in its report.

"Rather than tier I cities, tier II and III cities are emerging as prominent destinations for companies to provide job opportunities for aspirants," Assocham, which claimed analysing trends of job openings from a sample of 6.54 lakh employment opportunities generated in FY11, said.

The study, it said, was conducted in 56 cities covering 32 sectors.

Seventeen tier-II cities such as Pune, Bhubaneshwar, Surat, Chandigarh and Lucknow grabbed 38.8 per cent share of the total opening and created 2,53,702 jobs, it added.

As many as 33 tier-III cities; Allahabad, Udaipur, Agra, Ajmer, Kota and Meerut accounted for 23% share with 1,50,391 new jobs during the last fiscal, as per study.

The study also indicated that till recently big cities like Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore were the fastest job generating destinations with an estimated 2,49,779 jobs created during FY10.

"But the trend is clearly changing," it said.

Also, it indicated that tier-II and III cities are likely to generate 40% more jobs in the near future.

As far as the employment creating sectors were concerned, the study said after IT which commanded 30% share, education remained second with 8.94% portion followed by real estate which constituted 7.95%.