Hiring activity in India fell by 10% in December 2020 when compared to the same period last year, according to the latest Naukri JobSpeak Index.

The Index covers hiring trends in India based on listing on the Naukri.com job board. The Naukri JobSpeak Index for December 2020 stood at 1,972

When compared to the same period last year, the medical sector continued to register positive year-on-year growth at 11%. The chemicals/petrochemicals sector saw an uptick of 22% in Y-O-Y hiring in December 2020. Other key industries such as pharma/biotech (-1%), IT-Software (-2%) and Insurance (-4%) saw small declines versus last year. Meanwhile sectors such as Hospitality/Travel (-60%), Telecom (-25%) and Retail (-30%) remain impacted at a year-on-year level in December 2020.

Among cities, Naukri found that while Bengaluru (-1%), Pune (-2%), and Hyderabad (-5%) were less impacted given the growing demand for IT professionals in the virtually connected world, while Mumbai (-25%) and Delhi (-18%) saw a sharp decline in hiring activity in December 2020 as compared to the same time last year. Hiring in Tier-2 cities such as Jaipur (+2%) and Chandigarh (+8%) witnessed an increase at a Y-O-Y level.

The demand for professionals in the banking/insurance and pharma/biotech domain saw a significant increase of 14% each in December 2020 vs December 2019. IT-Software roles also saw an uptick of 6%.

While the entry-level experience band (0 to 3 years’ experience) witnessed a decline of 19% in hiring activity, the 8-12 years’ & 13-16 years’ experience band saw an increase of 4% and 6% respectively in December 2020 year-on-year.

The index has also shown improvement compared to the prior month. The Naukri JobSpeak Index saw an increase of 14% in hiring activity as compared to November 2020.

Among sectors, hiring in the insurance sector grew by 45% in December 2020 Vs November 2020 as Indians felt the need to secure their health and businesses in the post-Covid era, Naukri said.

The auto & ancillary sector (33%) continued to register growth in sequential hiring with increased consumer demand during the year-end period. Other key sectors such as BFSI (18%), Pharma/Biotech (28%), FMCG (21%) and IT-Software (11%) too have shown growth in month-on-month hiring in December 2020.

Within metros, Pune and Delhi led the sequential recovery at a 18% and 16% increase in hiring followed by Kolkata (14%) and Mumbai (10%). Coimbatore saw the highest hiring growth of 30% amongst Tier-2 cities followed by Ahmedabad at 20% and Jaipur at 15% in December 2020 versus November 2020.