Hiring activity slips 7% in December amid uncertainty

Hiring activity registered a 7% decline in December amid uncertainty and this trend may continue for few more months, says a Naukri.com report. 

The Naukri JobSpeak index for December 2016 stood at 1,659, which is 7% down from December 2015. The fall in the index is reflected in a decrease in hiring in key metro cities like Delhi/NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

"Post an impressive 14% growth in November the Jobspeak index has shown a negative growth of 7% in December. But for BFSI, Insurance and ITES almost all the sectors are showing negative growth," V Suresh, Chief Sales Officer, Naukri.Com said.

Suresh further noted that "looks like there is some uncertainty and this may continue for few more months".

ALSO READ: 80% employers see steady hiring activity in India in 2017: Survey 

Although December 2016 was a slow month for hiring, the banking Industry has seen a considerable uptick with jobs increasing by 14% on a year-on-year basis. Insurance jobs also went up by 19% in the same time period.

On the other hand, the IT-software industry saw a 4% fall, while jobs in the telecom/ISP industry saw a 24% fall, construction and engineering jobs decreased by 32% and oil and gas and power, infrastructure jobs fell by 30% in December 2016 compared to December 2015.

Top metros like Delhi/NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru witnessed a decline in hiring activity by 12%, 2% and 6% respectively.

Amongst other metros, the jobs index recorded a growth of 5% in Hyderabad and 4% in Pune, while it stayed flat in Chennai and Kolkata when comparing December 2016 data with December 2015.

Hiring for 0-3 years' experience bracket fell by 9.2%.

The maximum number of jobs continued to be in the 0-3 years category, while, jobs for over 16 years of experience stayed buoyant when compared with year ago period, the report said. 

ALSO READ: E-commerce, tech startups to dominate hiring landscape in coming months: TeamLease