While the Indian white-collar job market witnessed a 11 per cent on-year decline in March 2024 as compared to the same period last year, few bright spots that were seen this month was recruitment in the Oil & Gas sector. According to the Naukri JobSpeak Index, hiring in the Oil & Gas sector reported a growth of 22 per cent vs last year with maximum demand for MEP Engineers and Electrical Engineers. Hiring in this sector was particularly high in the cities of Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.
It added that hiring in the Pharma sector was marginally positive at 2 per cent growth vs last year. Hiring activity in this sector saw notable growth in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Baroda. “However other key sectors such as IT, BPO and Retail sectors, witnessed 16 per cent, 6 per cent and 5 per cent dip in hiring trends respectively vs last year, per the report.
Furthermore, unicorn startups have begun to showcase a renewed appetite for hiring with 8 per cent year-on-year growth in hiring within the segment. Among the unicorns, a substantial growth is witnessed in the IT-Software/Software Services space, which recorded a 71 per cent year-on-year increase in hiring activity. In terms of cities, Pune and Mumbai stood out as epicenters of this trend, recording a year-on-year growth rates of 51 per cent and 20 per cent respectively, in hiring activity among unicorn startups.
In March 2024, the Naukri JobSpeak Index stood at 2657, reflecting a 4 per cent dip compared to the previous month and an 11 per cent correction compared to March last year.
ML Engineers and Full Stack Data Scientists in demand
Per the findings of the report, AI/ML job roles continued to witness hiring momentum, with a 12 per cent increase in new job creation reported vs March 2023.
Hiring for niche roles such as Machine Learning Engineer went up by 82 per cent in March 2024 vs last year. Full Stack Data Scientist role also reported 20 per cent growth in hiring activity vs last year. This, it said, is in sharp contrast to the 16 per cent correction observed in overall IT sector hiring in March 2024 vs last year.
Vacancy for senior professionals
Per the report, senior professionals with more than 16 years of experience continued to witness maximum hiring activity, with a growth of 11 per cent in March 2024 vs last year. However, entry-level professionals witnessed a 11 per cent dip in new job opportunities, compared to March 2023. As a corollary, job offers in the salary range of more than Rs 20 lakh per annum went up by 16 per cent in March 2024 vs last year. However, new job openings with salaries less than Rs 12 lakh witnessed de-growth.
Trend in non-metro cities
Jobspeak index expanded its coverage to 13 new emerging cities in addition to 6 non-metro cities which were already getting reported. Per the findings, Jodhpur leads the hiring trends with a 13 per cent growth in new job creation compared to last year, followed by Rajkot, Raipur and Guwahati with 12 per cent, 7 per cent, and 6 per cent growth in new job creation respectively, in March 2024 vs last year. Although metros witnessed a hiring dip at an overall level, certain specific sectors like Oil & Gas, showed positive hiring sentiments even in metro cities.
Dr Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer of Naukri.com, said, “Basis the latest Naukri JobSpeak report & analytics, to me the Indian white collar job market looks poised as we exit a challenging year given the headwinds faced by the IT sector. With the baseline correction behind us and a few bright-spots visible in March, positive trends in coming quarters seem quite plausible. Demand for seasoned professionals & Indian AI/ML talent should give everyone lots to cheer for.”