Hiring activity in India grew by 95% in June 2021 when compared to June 2020 with growth led by the IT and software sector, according to the latest Naukri JobSpeak Index.

Year-on-year hiring in the IT-Software sector grew 163% in June 2021 against June 2020. Sectors such as Retail (+114%) and Telecom/ISP (+124%) which were still recovering from the first Covid wave and subsequent lockdown at the same time last year, also witnessed growth in June 2021. Hiring also picked up in the Insurance (+87%), Banking/Financial Services (+74%), Pharma/Biotech (+38%) and Teaching/Education (38%) sectors as compared to June 2020.

Within metro cities, year-on-year hiring was led by IT hubs including Hyderabad (+155%), Bengaluru (+149%) Pune (+145%). The hiring activity in Chennai (+135%) and Delhi/NCR (+102%) recorded relatively lesser growth during the same period owing to the second wave of the pandemic. Smaller cities saw slower overall growth as compared to metros with Ahmedabad (+164%), Vadodara (+84%) and Jaipur (+61%) leading hiring during the same period.

Professionals in the HR/Admin (+194%) and Banking/Insurance (+167%) domains saw significantly high demand in June 2021, whereas IT-Software (+165%) and Travel/Airlines (+113%) professionals were also highly sought after as per the year-on-year hiring trends. Hiring in the 8-12 years (+116%) and 4-7 years (+102%) experience bands also saw growth.

Meanwhile, the Index grew by 15% in June 2021 compared to May 2021. According to Naukri, this is an indication of resilience and recovery of hiring activity across the country, especially after the nosedive of 15% in April 2021 and then flattening out in May 2021, primarily due to the pandemic.

The IT-Software/Software Services sector grew 5% in June 2021 compared to May 2021. The sector also achieved an all-time high growth of 52%  as compared to pre-Covid levels in June 2019.

Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com said, “The strong recovery of the hiring sector at 15% in June 2021, close on the heels of a decline in May 2021 is encouraging. It is heartening to see sectors such as Hospitality (+87%) and Retail (+57%) responding positively after being impacted by the second Covid-19 wave.”