In December 2023, hiring in the Indian IT sector experienced a 21% decline compared to the same month in 2022, reflecting a trend consistent with much of the second half of the previous year, as per a report released on Tuesday.
Despite a cautious job market within the IT industry, specific roles such as full stack data scientist, IT infrastructure engineer, and automation engineer witnessed noteworthy hiring activity, according to the Naukri JobSpeak Index.
Several sectors, including BPO, education, retail, and healthcare, displayed cautious hiring sentiments, with declines of 17%, 11%, 11%, and 10%, respectively, in job offers in December compared to the corresponding month in 2022.
Hospitality and pharma emerged as sectors experiencing job growth in December, with the latter seeing a 2% increase in hiring. AI-related job offers demonstrated notable growth, with a 5% increase compared to December 2022.
Dr. Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer of Naukri.com, noted, “We observe marginal sequential growth of 2 per cent in December hiring activity compared to November, driven by non-IT sectors. However, the IT sector continued to be significantly impacted pulling the overall index down in comparison to last year, signaling a longer wait for a complete recovery in IT hiring.”
The hospitality sector sustained its growth momentum with a 4% increase in new job offers compared to December 2022. Mumbai and Delhi-NCR were highlighted as cities with the highest job growth in the sector, particularly seeking senior professionals with over 16 years of experience.
The Pharma sector witnessed a 2% increase in hiring, attributed to a renewed focus on R&D within the industry.
In terms of geographic trends, non-metro areas outperformed metros, with Vadodara recording a 3% growth in new job offers in December compared to the same month in 2022, according to the report.
