Recruitment growth eases to 3% in March '18

A recent report published by online job portal, Naukri.com, reported a three percent hike in hiring activity in March, down from six percent in the previous month.

As per the Naukri JobSpeak Index, hiring in March was pegged at 2,129, marking a three percent increase from March last year. Furthermore, a quarterly comparison of hiring activity indicated a seven percent rise in Q4 2017-18 compared to the corresponding quarter in the previous fiscal.

The growth in hiring was led by metro cities, with Mumbai and Kolkata registering a growth 11 and 20 percent respectively in Q4 2017-18, compared to the same period last year. The report also highlighted a 32 percent rise in hiring across jobs requiring production and maintenance as a key skill in the fourth quarter.

"The JobSpeak index for March has shown a three percent year-on-year growth driven by significant growth in the non-IT sectors, namely, automobile, construction and engineering. Having said that, there seems to be an air of caution in the IT/ITES sectors and we can expect the market to sustain the momentum gained and move further north in the next few months," said Naukri.com Chief Sales Officer V. Suresh.

Overall, the report highlighted strong hiring activity across several core industries. Hiring across auto and auto ancillary industry increased by 33 percent in March 2018 as compared to March 2017. Industrial products and heavy machinery industries saw an increase in hiring by 23 percent, BPO and insurance industries by 11 and 6 percent respectively, construction and engineering industry by 20 percent and banking and financial services went up by 5 percent in the aforementioned time period.

On the other hand, the IT-Software industry continued to be sluggish, with hiring registering a 12 percent decline in March.

Positive sentiments cut across experience levels with hiring across senior level (with over 16 years of experience) showed a robust growth of 8 percent, while the mid (4-7 years) and junior levels (0-3 years) grew by 3 and 6 percent respectively in March this year.

JobSpeak Index of March 2018 recorded a 26 percent rise in hiring activity for jobs requiring production/maintenance as a key skill, while hiring activity in sales / business development and site /engineering went up by 13 and 7 percent respectively.

A state-wise comparison noted that Mumbai registered a 4 percent rise in hiring activity, while Kolkata and Delhi/NCR witnessed a rise of 5 and 3 percent respectively. Other cities like Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad were flat in terms of hiring activity.

On a related note, the index is calculated based on job listings added to the site month on month. July 2008 has been taken as the base month with a score of 1,000 and the subsequent monthly index is compared with data for this month.