Hiring trends in the industrial market remained flat globally in the second quarter, both year over year and compared to the first quarter, according to the Q2 2017 Global Industrial Hiring Index released by executive search firm ZRG Partners.

Hiring across sectors showed positive trends for diversified manufacturing, posting the first growth in hiring since the first quarter of 2016. And oil and gas continued to increase hiring, posting more than 25% growth for the second consecutive quarter.

However, numbers for automotive — both year over year and quarter over quarter — show hiring trends are slowing.

“This quarter’s numbers were fairly encouraging to us. With the index staying level with Q1 2017 as well as with Q2 2016, we believe the market outlook in the industrial space is still relatively positive,” said Nate Frank, ZRG’s managing director, industrial practice. “We were also pleased to see that the oil and gas and heavy equipment numbers inched higher this past quarter.”

The index’s new reading of 112.7 compares with 113.5 in the first quarter and 114.4 in the second quarter of 2016.

The Global Industrial Hiring Index analysis utilizes a proprietary algorithm that looks at hiring within selected benchmark companies in seven distinct segments. ZRG Partners uses data from the CEB TalentNeuron tool and Pitchbook to assemble the sector data that drives the index.