Hiring activity in India registered a small decline of 2% in February 2021 when compared to the same period last year, according to the latest Naukri JobSpeak Index.

Overall, the Naukri JobSpeak Index for February 2021 stood at 2,356, an uptick of 22% in hiring activity when compared to January 2021.

Key industries such as IT-Software (+12%), Real Estate (+6%) and Medical/Healthcare (+3%) were least impacted at a year-on-year level while Hospitality/Travel continues to be the most impacted with 51% decline in hiring.

Other industries such as Oil/Gas (-47%), Retail (-32%) and Auto/ Auto Ancillary (-22%) attributed to the overall decline in hiring trends.

Metro cities like Hyderabad (+8%), Bangalore (+9%), and Pune (+2%) saw a positive growth in February 2021 versus last year. Within metros, Mumbai (-22%) remained the most impacted possibly due to a recent spurt in Covid-19 cases and lockdown enforcement in few areas.

Tier-2 cities like Coimbatore (-25%) and Kochi (-21%) saw a sharper decline in February 2021 versus last year.

The demand for professionals in the Banking/Insurance domain grew by +44% in February 2021. However, roles like Sales/Business Development (-23%) and Production/Maintenance (-25%) remained impacted over the year.

The hiring activity for professionals with over eight years of experience saw an uptick of 11% on average. With reduced campus hiring, the demand for professionals with 0-3 years’ experience was most impacted at -13%.

Naukri noted that month-on-month, hiring in the IT-Software/Software services industry registered a record growth of 33%

Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com said, “Record growth in sequential hiring of 33% and a significant year-on-year growth of 12% in the IT sector indicates that the wave of digital transformation will make India the epicenter of the next tech boom. Around 88% IT recruiters have confirmed that new jobs will be created in the coming few months as per the latest Naukri Hiring Outlook survey, further confirming that the wave of digitisation will spread rapidly.”