Hiring activity drops by 1.9%

The overall hiring index in the country declined by 1.9 percent from 677 in April 2009 to 664 in May 2009, according to an employment survey.

Although the overall index is comparatively stable, at micro level, there was a volatile movement in telecom and pharma which witnessed a fall in hiring activity by 12 to 14 percent, as per monthly job index of Naukri.com, India's leading job site.

Nine cities recorded a fall in hiring activities, including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hydrabad, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh.

There was an improvement demand for banking and insurance professionals in the past few months, going up by 17 percent in May in comparision to April this year.

Hiring in FMCG, food and beverages were up by nine percent in May 2009 as compared to April 2009.

"Apart from IT, banking, real estate and retailing, the other industries seemed to have bottomed out and we expect a recovery in the upcoming months", said Hitesh Oberoi, COO and director, Info Edge, whose flagship brand is Naukri.com

The index has been calculated on job listings added to the site month on month with July 2008 as the base month.