Starting the new year on an optimistic note, India Inc's hiring activity increased four per cent in January reflecting a continued momentum in recovery, a study by leading job portal Naukri.com said.
Naukri.com's monthly Job Speak index rose to 743 in January, indicating that hiring had accelerated by four per cent compared to December 2009.
The Job Speak index is calculated based on job listings added to the Naukri.com website month-on-month. July 2008 has been taken as the base month with a score of 1000 and subsequent monthly indices are compared with it.
"There is a shift in declining trend of hiring activity towards a more stabilised market scenario as indicated by the recovering job index," it added.
The rise in the job index indicates renewed optimism and a happy start for both job seekers and recruiters, the report stated.
"With the beginning of the new year, the employment market seems to be moving in a more positive direction. The hiring momentum is expected to move up in most of the key industry sectors compared to last year," Info Edge (the owner of naukri.com) National Head-Marketing and Communications Sumeet Singh said.
The sectoral analysis also revealed that hiring is on road to recovery. Hiring in IT-software and IT-enabled services segments picked up as much as 10 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively, in January 2010-- post the December dip.
Moreover, six out of top seven cities show a positive trend in hiring in January. Mumbai has been most bullish with the city's job index rising for the past three months.
The Naukri.Com survey revealed that a year-on-year comparison of the city index reflects that hiring has picked up in Delhi and Mumbai, while other cities are still on path to recovery.
The city job index for Mumbai at 748 in January is noted as the highest for the city in the last one year, it added.
Moreover, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad witnessed growth in hiring by four per cent, eight per cent and seven per cent in January, respectively, compared with the previous month.
Similarly, a year-on-year comparison of top five industry sectors reflects that hiring has started picking up in the auto and banking, while other areas are also moving towards stability.
Recruitment in auto and the oil and gas sectors have moved up four per cent and three per cent, respectively, in January over December.
In contrast, the banking and financial sector saw a dip of five per cent in January after three consecutive months of an upward moving index.
