White-collar job postings witnessed 6 percent year-on-year growth during the festive window of October and November 2024, according to the Naukri JobSpeak Index. However, overall activity, reported modest trends at 2430 points, reporting a 2% year-on-year growth.
The positive hiring trend was driven by strong growths in key non-IT sectors like Oil & Gas (at 16 percent), FMCG and Pharma/Biotech at 7 percent each, and Real Estate at above 10 percent. A sustained hiring momentum was seen in domains like AI-ML (at 30 percent). However, the IT sector hiring remained steady, registering a flattish trend compared to last year, according to the data.
Non-IT sectors embrace freshers
While the IT sector has historically been a dominant force in fresher hiring, the Naukir.com data showed an upsurge in fresher recruitment across non-IT domains. The hiring was led by fields such as Architecture/Interior Designing (29 percent), Chemicals/PetroChemical/Plastic/Rubber (18 percent), Facility Management (27 percent), KPO/Research/Analytics (28 percent), Steel (37 percent), and Wellness/Fitness/Sports/Beauty (32 percent), respectively.
Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer of Naukri.com said, “We typically observe muted trends on white collar hiring during the festive period and the 2 percent growth In November broadly reflects that. However, the combined October and November trends reflect good resilience. Additionally, the rise in non-IT fresher hiring is a good development with respect to the younger talent.”
AI/ML fuels tech hiring
The broader IT sector contracted but recruiters continued to look for experts in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. This field experienced 20 percent YoY growth, being particularly pronounced in Kolkata and Delhi NCR, witnessing a 58 percent and 47 percent increase, respectively.