New Delhi, Oct 9 (IANS): White-collar hiring has witnessed a decline of 8.6 per cent in September this year as compared to the same month of last year in India, a new report showed on Monday.

According to data by Naukri JobSpeak, white-collar hiring stood at 2,835 in September 2023, representing a growth of almost 6 per cent over the previous month.

The IT sector continued to face global headwinds and saw the hiring numbers dwindle in the last few months. However, Big Data Testing Engineer, IT, Information Security, and IT Operations Manager roles were in high demand even during this period.

"While the IT sector continues to stay impacted, robust growth in the banking sector is a bright spot. Coupled with the fact that the overall index sequentially grew 6 per cent vs. last month, this underscores the resilience of the Indian job market, anchored in sectoral diversity," said Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com.

IT-dependent cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune saw a contraction of 30 per cent, 31 per cent, 32 per cent, and 18 per cent, respectively in new job offers in September 2023 over September 2022.

The non-metro cities continued to outshine the metros for job creation in September 2023. Vadodara, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur experienced 4 per cent, 3 per cent, and 2 per cent growth, respectively, in hiring.

The hospitality/travel sector grew by 22 per cent, while BFSI and healthcare sectors recorded a growth of seven per cent each in September this year over the same month last year.

Oil & Gas and auto sectors recorded 6 per cent growth each, the report mentioned.

BPO/ITES and FMCG sectors were some of the major sectors that registered negative growth of 25 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively.

The job market has shown preferences for experienced professionals in September. The hiring for professionals with over 16 years of experience jumped about 29 per cent, whereas the hiring numbers for professionals with 13-16 years of experience increased by 11 per cent.