Hiring activity in Kolkata picked up by 14 per cent in May 2009. The index moved from 608 in April 2009 to 690 in May 2009, according to Naukri JobSpeak, the monthly job index released by Naukri.com. On a national level, the Naukri JobSpeak index at 664, indicates a fall of 1.9 per cent as compared to 677 in April 2009. Although the overall index is comparatively stable, at a micro level, there was a volatile movement in telecom and pharma, witnessing a fall in hiring activity by 12-14 per cent.
Hiring activity in telecom was down by 12 per cent, in May 2009 as compared to April 2009 with the index at 728 in May 2009. Hiring activity in pharma and biotech was down by 14 per cent in May 2009 as compared to April 2009. Oil and gas saw a drop in hiring activity by 8 per cent in May 2009 as compared to Apr 2009. Banking and financial services were up by 7 per cent in May 2009 as compared to April 2009. Hiring activity in IT-software was down by 6 per cent and in IT-hardware and networking by 14 per cent in May 2009 as compared to April 2009.
Among industries seeing an upward trend, FMCG, foods and beverage were up by 9 per cent, in May 2009 as compared to April 2009. Despite a negative trend on overall jobs, banking and insurance have witnessed an upward movement in the past two months and were up by 7 per cent in May 2009 as compared to April 2009. Hiring for pharma and biotech professionals was down by 27 per cent in May 2009 as compared to April 2009. On a continued downward trend, hiring activity in IT- software was down by 7 per cent, engineering and design was down by 13 per cent in May 2009 as compared to April 2009. Hiring for accounts and finance professionals was down while hiring for banking and insurance professionals went up by 17 per cent during the same period.
Hiring for ITes and BPO professionals inched up by 2 per cent in May 2009 as compared to April 2009, after a heavy fall in the previous month. Hiring for sales and business development professionals remained stable, while hiring for production and maintenance professionals saw an upward movement by 4 per cent in May 2009 as compared to April 2009. Hiring for supply chain professionals went up by 10 per cent in May 2009 as compared to April 2009.