Hiring activity for white-collar jobs declines 12% during Oct-Nov 2023; oil & gas, pharma, insurance sectors exhibit growth

Hiring activity for white-collar jobs witnessed a decline of 12 per cent during October-November months as compared to the same period last year, according to a report, Naukri JobSpeak which is a monthly Index representing the state of the Indian job market and hiring activity. Naukri JobSpeak Index stood at 2433 for the combined October-November months. The decline, it said, was largely due to fall in recruitment trends in IT-Software, telecom and education sectors.

Oil & gas sectors recorded good momentum, clocking a 9 per cent jump in hiring in the October-November period as compared to last year, on rapid expansion by energy companies and the setting up of new refineries across the country. Machine Operator/ Machinist, Instrumentation Engineer, and Maintenance Head were some of the job roles that saw good demand in the sector growing 39 per cent, 25 per cent and and 7 per cent compared to the two-month period in 2022.

The Pharma sector, meanwhile, registered a 6 per cent increase in new job offers in the October-November period of 2023 as against the in the October-November period of 2022. In this segment, Lab Technician, Clinical Assistant, and Store Keeper job roles witnessed high demand in the twin months of October-November of 2023 growing 18 per cent, 1 per cent and 30 per cent over the same period last year.

Insurance was another major industry that saw positive momentum. Hiring in the sector grew by 5 per cent in the October-November period of 2023 over the same period of 2022. Branch Sales Executive, Area Sales Manager, and Branch Sales Manager were some of the roles that saw growth of 16 per cent, 12 per cent and and 17 per cent in the October-November period of 2023. 

The IT sector, however, continued to remain impacted and the overall hiring in the industry was 22 per cent lower in the October-November period vs the 2022 base. The silver lining is that despite witnessing substantial corrections in the first half of 2023, the sector reported a 1 per cent growth in November despite Diwali, over October 2023. New Job openings in AI-related fields like Machine learning engineer and Full stack data scientist increased by 64 per cent and 16 per cent as compared to October-November 2022.

Non-metros outperform metros

The non-metros, the report stated, outperformed the metros in terms of hiring. Vadodara clocked a 9 per cent growth in new job offers in the last two-month period as against the same period of 2022. Ahmedabad, meanwhile, stayed flat. Metros like Delhi-NCR and Mumbai clocked negative growth of 12 per cent each. The IT-focused cities of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune recorded negative growth of 20 per cent, 18 per cent, 21 per cent, and 18 per cent in the October-November period of 2023 as compared to the October-November period of 2022.

Senior professionals continue to be favourites 

Per the findings of the report, organizations continued to show preference for senior professionals in terms of hiring, a trend seen in most of 2023. Hiring for senior professionals with more than 16 years of experience went up by 26 per cent in the October-November period of 2023 as against the October-November period of 2022. For professionals falling in the experience category of 13-16 years, new job offers went up by 6 per cent. For professionals falling in the experience category of 8-12 years and 4-7 years, hiring dipped by 6 per cent and 22 per cent respectively. For freshers, new offers recorded negative growth of 13 per cent in the latest two-month period over the same period of 2022.

Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com, said, “It was encouraging to see core Non-IT sectors like Oil & Gas, Pharma and Insurance growing at a healthy clip during a cluttered festive period. November’s 1 per cent growth in IT vs October could be a much awaited positive sign, as we eagerly await next month’s trends.”