India’s formal sector noted an improved hiring sentiment in December 2020, as the high-volume sectors, including BFSI (Banking, financial services and insurance), IT/telecom and retail, posted high growth in talent demand compared to the prior month. This is according to the latest TimesJobs RecruiteX index.

The Index is a monthly recruitment index that records the demand and supply of talent at India’s formal sector. The index does not feature year-on-year data.

The BFSI sector noted the highest growth of 5% in talent demand in December 2020 when compared to November 2020.  The IT/telecom sector followed with 4% growth in December 2020, exactly similar to its November 2020 performance. This was followed by retail at 3% growth.

The Index noted that this month-on-month growth in talent demand hinted that the corporates are vying for an economic revival.

By functional area, the top gainers in talent demand was the Banks/Insurance profile which recovered from (-2%) talent demand in November 2020 to gain 9% in December 2020. It was the top profile sought by the recruiters in the review month.

The doctors/nurses profile which had seen a setback in talent demand in November 2020, grew to 3% in December 2020 and became the second most preferred work profile. The IT/telecom profile – which was the top talent demand gainer in November 2020, saw 2% growth in December 2020.

By city, Ahmedabad’s talent demand saw a huge improvement, jumping from (-15%) in November 2020 to 15% in December 2020, and became the top city for talent demand. Jaipur followed a similar trend, recording a jump from (-13%) in November 2020 to 14% in December 2020. Among the metro cities, Delhi-NCR witnessed a decline of (-3%) in talent demand while Chennai, Mumbai and Pune saw a single-digit growth in the review month.

Meanwhile, talent demand for people with 10-20 years of work experience gained the most month-on-month growth of 4% in the review month. Senior professionals with over 20 years of work experience, which were the most sought work experience range in November 2020, saw no momentum in December 2020.