IT Hiring Falls 31% in June, White-collar Hiring Stabilises

White-collar hiring in India continued to stabilise in June 2023, while it fell by 3% overall from the previous year. With new employment in the IT sector falling 31% year over year in June 2023, hiring in the industry is still a worry. According to a survey by Naukri.com, the two sectors that experienced the most significant rise in employment during the month were the energy and real estate industries, which increased by 40% and 17%, respectively.

In June 2023, the Naukri JobSpeak Index, one of India's most critical indicators of hiring based on around 10 lakh monthly positions, was 2,795. This represents a 3% and a 2% reduction, respectively, from June 2022 to May 2023.

Record Hiring in the Oil & Gas, Real Estate, and Pharmaceutical Sectors

The oil and gas industry maintained its upward trend, as measured by the Naukri JobSpeak Index, which reported a 40% increase in new positions from June last year. This is consistent with the rapid refinery growth and supporting functions to fulfil the escalating domestic and export demand. Exploration engineers, refinery operations managers, and health, safety, and environment (HSE) professionals are the key positions seeing the most recruiting, primarily in the Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Delhi-NCR regions. Mid-level professionals are more frequently hired in this industry.

With a 17% increase in new job creation from June last year, the real estate sector extended its bull run. Mumbai and Chennai emerged as the primary employment centres for positions like property appraisers, construction project managers, and real estate consultants, riding the infrastructural development and commercial real estate boom.

Compared to June of the previous year, the number of new positions in the pharmaceutical industry increased by 14%. Ahmedabad, Chennai, and Pune have become top locations for employing biotechnologists, clinical research analysts, and quality assurance specialists due to ongoing R&D investments in medication development.

Other industries with encouraging hiring trends were the automotive, hospitality, and banking industries, which had increased new job creation by 11% and 12%, respectively, from June last year.

IT, retail, and FMCG Display Careful Hiring

Compared to June last year, the number of new positions generated in the IT sector fell by 31%. Every type of IT company saw a fall in hiring, including global tech giants, sizable IT services providers, tech-focused startups, and unicorns. TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and HCL are just a few of India's leading IT firms.

All metros and non-metros saw a decline in hiring, with IT-dependent metro areas like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune suffering the most. While specialised positions like cybersecurity analysts and AI specialists exhibited positive hiring trends, defying the general downward trend in hiring for most other tech roles, traditional positions like software engineers and system analysts continued to experience a decline.

Aside from IT, industries like retail, BPO, education, FMCG, and insurance also demonstrated cautious hiring sentiments, with declines in hiring trends of 23%, 17%, 9%, 9%, and 7%, respectively, from June of the previous year.

Growth in City-Wide Hiring

With a record-breaking 23% increase in employment from June of last year, Ahmedabad led the list, followed by Vadodara with a 14% increase and Jaipur, which remained stable. The automotive, construction, and pharmaceutical industries were significant factors in this hiring boom in non-metros.

However, hiring activity decreased further throughout major IT-driven metros, except Mumbai, which remained stable compared to June 2022 and was supported mainly by the oil and gas and hospitality industries. Despite a slight decline of 5% in overall white-collar hiring patterns, the healthcare and electrical switchgear industries saw a spike in employment in Delhi-NCR.