White-collar hiring activity in India ticks up 4% in January
White-collar hiring activity in India ticks up 4% in January

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White-collar hiring activity in India increased by 4% year-on-year in January 2025, according to the latest Naukri JobSpeak Index.
The Index came in at 2,550 points in January, up from 2,651 the month before and up from 2,455 the year before.
“In 2024, January had greeted us with a disappointing 11% de-growth in hiring. In contrast, 2025 seems to have started on a positive note,” Chief Business Officer of Naukri Pawan Goyal said in a press release. “The 4% hiring growth is tempered as IT recovery settles in; however, strong growth in most core sectors including FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods), pharma, insurance and hospitality is a good sign and augurs well for a cracking 2025 in terms of white-collar hiring.”
By industry, AI/ML (machine learning) led growth with a 26% increase, followed by FMCG (16%). On the other hand, banking/finance/broking saw a 5% decrease while healthcare reported a 4% decline.
By experience, professionals with 16 or more years of experience saw a 9% gain year-on-year. Professionals with 13-15 years saw an 8% increase while professionals with 8-12 years of experience recorded a 7% increase. Professionals with 4-7 years saw flat growth while professionals with 0-3 years of experience saw a 3% uptick.
The Naukri JobSpeak is a monthly Index representing the state of the Indian job market & hiring activity based on new job listings and job-related searches by recruiters on the resume database of Naukri.com. The JobSpeak Index captures hiring activity across multiple dimensions, including industries, cities, functional areas, and experience bands.
July 2008 is the base month with an index value of 1,000, and the subsequent monthly index values are compared with the data for July 2008.