White-collar hiring activity in India registered a decline of 3% in August 2024 when compared to August 2023, according to the latest Naukri JobSpeak Index.

India’s white-collar hiring activity stood at 2,576 points in August. The month of August saw a series of extended holiday weekends, impacting recruitment activity.

“Hiring in August is a story of two halves. While the first half of the month showed typical patterns, the second experienced an impact due to extended holidays,” Pawan Goyal, chief business officer of Naukri.com, said in the Economic Times.

Several sectors demonstrated growth despite the overall decline of 3%. Accounting/finance hiring increased 52% year-on-year, followed by insurance (29%), fertilisers/pesticides (27%), strategy/management consulting (26%) and mining (24%).

These sectors, among others, stood out in an otherwise tepid job market. Goyal said, “Key sectors like AI-ML (artificial intelligence-machine learning), FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) and pharma continue to show robust growth which gives us reason not to worry about the job market.”

AI/ML jobs increased 14% year-on-year, although the overall IT sector saw a modest growth of 1% year-on-year. 

Meanwhile, notable sectors that demonstrated a dip in hiring included recruitment (-45%), security/law enforcement (-25%), telecom/internet service providers (-13%), education/training/teaching (-11%), and semiconductors/electronics (-1%).

Job opportunities decreased by 7% for professionals with up to three years of experience and 6% for those with four to seven years of experience. Senior professionals, those with more than 16 years of experience, remained in high demand across cities, with 11% more job openings than a year ago, the Index noted.