After hitting a post-recession record last month, hiring activity in India slowed slightly, according to the Naukri Job Speak Index for March 2012.
The index, which compares the number of hiring activity in a month to that of July 2008, was at 1,170, slightly down from 1209 in February.
July 2008 was the height of the economic good times and witnessed high levels of activity.
The fall shows a minor dip in the hiring activity owing to the ongoing appraisal season, Naukri said. “Hiring tends to slowdown by the end of Q1 every year because of the appraisal cycle. We expect hiring to pick up again by June-July this year,” Hitesh Oberoi, CEO and MD of Info Edge, which owns Naukri.com, said.
For a change, smaller cities like Kolkata and Pune, with a growth of 9% and 5% respectively, led the growth in March. Usual hotspots such as Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad saw dips within the range of 2% and 6% in March, compared to February. Chennai job market was steady.
Except the Construction sector, which saw a 7% dip in hiring activity in Mar-12 when compared to Feb-12, hiring levels in all the other sectors have been stable or seen positive movement, India’s largest job portal said.
Oil and Gas and Telecom sector witnessed maximum movement in the employment front with the index moving up 6% and 4% respectively.
IT, ITES, Auto and Banking numbers were stable, while hiring of software and BPO employees too was stable.
Sales and business development executives saw a 3% rising in hiring.
