IT hiring up by 48 per cent: Naukri.com

New Delhi: Hiring activity in the country jumped to a record level in April, led by sectors like IT, insurance and banking, which saw recruitment returning to pre-down turn levels, job portal Naukri.com has said.

An analysis reflected IT industry, which was grappling with recession, has seen things moving in a positive direction with hiring activity moving up by 48 per cent in April as compared to the same month last year.

Naukri.com's monthly Job Speak index climbed by six per cent to 1,019 in April, the highest level since July 2008. In March, the index was at 962.

"The first quarter of the year started on an optimistic note with a jump in hiring sentiment across cities, industries and functional areas. We can see that the job market has recovered sharply from the depths of gloom and the April job index has surpassed the pre-down turn levels," Info Edge National Head, Marketing and Communication, Sumeet Singh said.

As compared to March this year, IT and insurance sector saw maximum movement on the recruitment front with their sectoral job indices moving up by 16 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, in April.

Both these industries for the first time witnessed their job index surpass the July 2008 levels, the report stated.

Among cities, hiring activity for Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune moved up by 18 per cent, 17 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, in April over March.

"This is primarily because of the bounce back in the hiring scenario of the IT sector and these markets have a high IT concentration," the report added.

Interestingly, with the hiring in India picking up and the continuing glum in overseas job markets, non-resident Indian professionals are looking to return to India.

According to astrology portal Astroyogi.com, there has been a visible growth in number of job related astrological queries from its NRI users, evaluating options of returning to their home country.

The Job Speak index is calculated based on job listings added to the Naukri.com website month-on-month.

Meanwhile, the job index for Delhi and Kolkata saw a dip in April. However, both the cities' average for last three month moved up by 7 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively, compared to the March figure.

Earlier in the day, another online recruitment service provider Monster India had come out with its April employment index, which also gave an optimistic outlook for the job market.