New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS): Online recruitment activities in December 2017 registered a two per cent decline month-on-month (m-o-m) indicating a relative slowdown in the pace of hiring activity, a report said here on Friday.

However, the report revealed a 13 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in e-recruitment activities.

According to the Monster Employment Index, the home appliances sector continued to lead the long-term growth chart with 68 per cent y-o-y growth, although down four points from 72 per cent y-o-y growth in November 2017.

The report said e-recruitment activity in banking/financial services, insurance registered 38 per cent y-o-y growth during the month under review.

"Online demand in automotive/ancillaries/tyres (up 35 per cent) sustained a progressive y-o-y growth. The sector also registered the steepest growth in e-recruitment activity for the month among all monitored industry sectors," the report said.

It added that the demand in hospitality and travel saw the most notable slowdown from 32 per cent in November 2017 to 17 per cent in December 2017.

"Monster Employment Index is exhibiting a relative slowdown in the pace of hiring activity in December 2017," said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com, Asia Pacific and Middle-East.

"India's hiring outlook in 2017 was dampened due to introduction of radical reforms such as demonetisation, implementation of GST and a new bankruptcy regime. Our estimate is that these reforms would help Indian economy in mid- to long-term with creation of more jobs."

Modi added that the biggest expectation out of the Union Budget 2018-19 would be a higher focus on job creation in key labour-intensive industry sectors like manufacturing and infrastructure.

City-wise data in the report showed that Kolkata (up 50 per cent) recorded the most notable annual growth rate among all monitored cities, followed by Baroda (up 36 per cent) and Jaipur (up 32 per cent).

"Amongst metros, Delhi NCR (up four per cent) witnessed the slowest growth in e-recruitment activity," it added.

The Monster Employment Index, which was launched in May 2010 with data collected since October 2009, is a broad and comprehensive monthly analysis of online job posting activity in India conducted by Monster India.