Hiring activity in India's white-collar professional segment reported a slight decline of 0.5% in May 2023 when compared to the same period a year ago, according to the latest Naukri JobSpeak Index.

According to the Index, the job postings for white collar hiring in May 2023 was at 2,849, as against 2,863 in May 2022.

Naukri said the small decline in the Index masks strong divergence in hiring trends across different sectors and geographies.

While the oil and gas sector clearly emerged as a hiring hotspot with a 31% increase in the new jobs compared to last year, hiring activity in the IT sector stayed at 23% below its level in May 2022.

Besides IT, sectors such as retail, education, insurance, and BPO also showed cautious hiring sentiments with a dip of 21%, 16%, 15% and 14%, respectively, in hiring trends during May compared to the corresponding month in 2022.

In contrast, the real estate and banking sectors continued to show positive hiring sentiments, registering 22% and 14% growth in hiring activities, respectively, compared to May last year.

The Pharma sector also emerged as another bright spot, recording a respectable 11% growth in hiring activity compared to May last year, the report said adding that automobiles and hospitality were some of the other sectors witnessing positive hiring sentiments with 10% and 8% growth in the new jobs created compared to a year-ago.

“The multi-sectoral growth in white-collar hiring across sectors such as real estate, banking, oil and gas and pharma reflect the evolving and diversified nature of the Indian economy.” Naukri.com Chief Business Officer Pawan Goyal said.

Naukri’s report further said that the IT industry hiring remained an area of concern. “The decline in hiring was witnessed across all types of IT companies including global tech giants, large IT services companies, tech-focused startups, and unicorns,” said the report.

According to Naukri, cities with heavy presence of IT-focused companies, such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune, were the hardest hit.

Non-metro cities emerged as new hiring trendsetters, led by Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Jaipur primarily driven by banking and auto sectors. On the other hand, hiring activity stayed flat or declined marginally in large metros, except Mumbai and Delhi.

The white-collar hiring market remained bullish for senior level job seekers. In particular, professionals with 13-16 years and 16+ years of experience witnessed an increase in new job openings of 26% and 39%, respectively, compared to May last year. Hiring for freshers and mid-level positions remained muted, with a dip of 7% in activity as compared to May last year.

The Naukri JobSpeak Index is a monthly Index representing the state of the Indian job market and hiring activity based on new job listings and job-related searches by recruiters on the resume database of Naukri.com.