Hiring activity in India grew by 125% in May 2021 against May 2020 when the pandemic first hit the jobs market, according to the latest Naukri JobSpeak Index.

While most sectors still have to recover to pre-pandemic levels, year-on-year hiring in the IT-Software sector grew by 200% in May 2021 and has even surpassed its growth in 2019. Other sectors such as Retail (143%), Auto/Ancillary (108%) and Education/ Teaching (105%) that were highly impacted last year saw a recovery in May 2021. The Pharma/Biotech (43%) sector, which remained afloat during the first wave of the pandemic saw proportionate growth in May 2021.

Meanwhile, the top six metros recorded 164% growth in hiring in May 2021 Vs May 2020.

Within metros, annual hiring was led by IT hubs including Pune (+217%), Hyderabad (+207%) and Bangalore (+187%).

The hiring activity in Mumbai (+112%) and Delhi/NCR (+108%) grew relatively less during the same period owing to the pandemic impact. Smaller cities saw slower overall growth of +91% as compared to metros with Ahmedabad (+171%) and Chandigarh (+108%) leading hiring in May 2021 compared with May 2020.

The demand for professionals in the IT Software (+207%), HR/Admin (+195%) and Banking/Insurance (+151%) domains saw significantly high demand in May 2021, whereas Marketing (+64%) and Sales/Business Development (+47%) professionals were not in as much demand as per the hiring trends.

Hiring across experience bands saw an average increase of +114% in May 2021 compared with May 2020 with the 8-12 years’ experience band showing maximum growth.

When compared to the previous month the JobSpeak Index fell by 1%.