Hiring sentiments in artificial intelligence (AI), Oil & Gas, and Pharma sectors have witnessed an optimistic growth in February 2024 in an otherwise cautious market, said Naukri JobSpeak Index, a job index for white collar hiring in India. The Naukri JobSpeak Index stood at 2780 in February 2024, registering an increase of 13 per cent over the preceding month and about 8 per cent lower than the same time last year.
The report said that niche AI related roles such as Machine Learning Engineer and Full Stack AI Scientist continue to remain in high demand, posting a jump of 100 per cent 44 per cent respectively, in February 2024 in comparison to the last year. Conventional Data Scientist roles also continued to witness 15 per cent increase in hiring activity vs last year. This is in contrast to a 15 per cent slowdown, observed in overall IT sector hiring in February 2024 vs last year.
Further, the Oil and Gas sector registered an increase in hiring by 21 per cent during February 2024 as compared to the last year, with maximum increase in hiring for MEP Engineers, Electrical Engineers, and Factory Heads, across Ahmedabad, Delhi/NCR, and Mumbai regions.
Pharma sector hiring, meanwhile, recorded a 9 per cent growth in February 2024 as compared to the same time last year. “With the ever-increasing demand for pharma products in domestic markets, specific roles like Biochemist, Biotechnologist, and Microbiologist witnessed prominent hiring in the pharma sector. Hiring in this sector was particularly high in the cities of Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Chennai,” it stated.
Hiring in the FMCG sector witnessed an increase of 7 per cent in February this year as compared to the same month of 2023. The growth was led by an uptick in demand across rural areas, and this created demand for roles like Sales Manager, Supply Chain Manager, and Marketing Manager. Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai topped the cities that offered new jobs in the sector in February 2024.
Major sectors such as IT, BPO and retail sectors, witnessed 15 per cent, 12 per cent and 6 per cent decline in hiring trends respectively in February 2024 vs last year.
Non-metro cities remain the hiring powerhouses
Non-metro cities, the report said, continued to witness ever-increasing demand for new talent as hiring corrections continued in metro cities. To gauge this non-metro hiring spree at a deeper level, JobSpeak Index coverage has been expanded to 13 new emerging cities, in addition to 6 non-metro cities which were already getting reported. Amongst the newly added non-metro cities, Raipur lead the hiring trends with a 14 per cent growth in new job creation compared to last year, followed by Surat, Jodhpur and Gandhinagar with 12 per cent, 10 per cent, and 8 per cent growth in new job creation, respectively, in February 2024 vs last year, led by Oil & Gas, Banking and Auto sectors. Although metros witnessed a hiring dip at an overall level, certain specific sectors like Oil & Gas and Pharma, did show positive hiring sentiments across various metro cities.
Demand continues for senior professionals and high salary brackets
According to the report, senior professionals with more than 16 years of experience continued to witness maximum job offer rollouts. The hiring for this experience segment went up by a staggering 21 per cent in February 2024 vs last year. New job offers for professionals falling in the experience category of 13-16 years went up by almost 7 per cent. However, entry-level professionals witnessed a 15 per cent decline in new job opportunities, compared to February 2023.
At the same time, job offers in the salary range of more than Rs 20 lakh per annum went up by 23 per cent in February 2024 vs last year. New jobs in the salary range of Rs 13-20 lakh per annum saw marginal increase of 4 per cent, while new job openings in salaries less than Rs 12 lakh witnessed degrowth.
Dr Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer of Naukri.com, said, “This month’s JobSpeak index underscores a transformative shift in India’s hiring landscape, with remarkable hiring growth seen in Oil & Gas, Pharma, and in AI sectors, against a backdrop of cautious optimism. This resilience, especially witnessed across newly added non-metro cities in JobSpeak index coverage, underscores the evolving contours of India’s job market.”