New Delhi, Feb 6 (IANS): Hiring for AI-related roles along with sectors like healthcare, hospitality, and FMCG has witnessed significant growth in January in India, a new report revealed on Tuesday.

According to the Naukri JobSpeak Index, the white-collar hiring in India stood at 2,455 in January 2024, registering an increase of one per cent over the preceding month and about 11 per cent lower than last year.

Senior professionals and premium job seekers were in the highest demand. New jobs in AI increased by 12 per cent in January this year versus last year.

"The significant rise in AI-related jobs is indicative of the changing skill requirements in the IT sector, while the positive hiring sentiment in Healthcare, Hospitality and FMCG reflect a strong domestic economy," said Dr Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer of Naukri.com.

As per the report, hiring for niche AI-related roles such as Machine Learning Engineer and Full Stack AI Scientist jumped (year-on-year) by a staggering 46 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively.

Conventional AI roles such as Data Scientist were also in good demand.

This is in contrast to a modest 1 per cent growth in overall IT jobs in January 2024 compared to the preceding month. On a year-on-year basis, the overall hiring in the IT sector is 19 per cent lower than the boom times of January 2023, the report said.

Hiring in the healthcare sector increased by 7 per cent (year-on-year) in January, with a maximum increase in demand for administrative roles. New job offers in the FMCG witnessed an increase of 5 per cent in January this year as compared to the same month of 2023.

The major sectors that witnessed degrowth in hiring included BPO and Insurance, which saw a decline of 16 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.

Further, the education and retail sectors saw a year-on-year contraction of 7 per cent each.