Mumbai, 04th April’ 2023: Job vacancies in the BFSI sector broke all records as the Naukri Jobspeak Index for Banking reached an all-time high of 4555 in March 2023 compared to 3138 in March 2022. Beyond BFSI, the hiring landscape in India displayed cautious optimism where the Naukri JobSpeak Index, country’s premier job index derived from more than a million monthly job openings, stood at 2979 in March 2023, up 5% over last year and flat against last month.
Non-Tech Sectors Drive Hiring Activity Growth
Insurance and Banking sectors are witnessing a secular bull run in new job creation, significantly contributing to the upward hiring trend in the overall white-collar job market of India. The new jobs created in the insurance sector recorded an astonishing 108% growth in March 2023 compared to March 2022, primarily driven by jobs related to selling insurance products. The banking sector displayed a 45% YoY growth fueled by the expansion of digital banking services in the rapidly evolving global economy. The promising aspect of this growth is its geographical spread where vacancies in cities as diverse as Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Kolkata increased by 145%, 72%, and 49% respectively. The new job creation spread across both global capability centers of multinational BFSI giants as well as the domestic financial stalwarts focused on selling insurance and banking products to the Indian consumers.
The IT sector, on the other hand, witnessed consolidation in hiring with a decline of 17% in new jobs created compared to March last year. The hiring intent declined across both large IT giants and unicorns, while hiring for early-to-mid stage startups remained stable with respect to the same period last year. Vacancies for high-demand roles such as big data engineers, DevOps, and software development engineers, which were on a growth path until recent times, have declined in March 2023 by 20%, 9%, and 6%, respectively. However, the demand for emerging roles like machine learning saw an uptick.
New jobs created in other Non-Tech sectors such as Oil, Real Estate, FMCG, and Hospitality increased by 36%, 31%, 14%, and 7%, respectively, compared to last year’s base. However, specific Non-Tech sectors such as retail, education, and BPO, exhibited cautious hiring sentiment with a 4%, 2%, and 2% decline in hiring activity, respectively.
Non-Metros See Maximum Job Creation
Among non-metro cities, Vadodara leads hiring trends with a 50% growth in new job creation compared to last year, followed by Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and Kochi with 49%, 29%, and 13% growth in new job creation respectively. Besides BFSI, Real Estate & BPO sectors primarily contributed to the hiring activity observed across non-metros.
In metro cities, Mumbai and Delhi/NCR observed positive hiring momentum, with 17% and 7% growth in new job creation, respectively, primarily driven by the insurance sector. Conversely, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Pune, heavily reliant on the IT sector, have experienced a 12%, 11%, and 2% dip in job creation, respectively. Consistent with the prevailing pattern, the majority of job growth in metro cities was also driven by non-IT sectors such as insurance, real estate, and automotive sectors.
Mid-Level Professionals Back in Demand
Amid broader market uncertainties, the appetite for mid-level professionals has experienced a significant increase, registering a 14% growth compared to the previous year—following a period of stagnation in recent months. In contrast, hiring activity for entry-level professionals remained unchanged compared to last year.
Commenting on the report, Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com, said, “The BFSI sector’s growth in a cautious job market signals resilience of the Indian economy and the expanding horizons of the white-collar job landscape. Non-metro cities are proving to be the catalysts for change, redefining the employment narrative in India.”