Hiring in the IT-software/software services industry witnessed a record growth of 33 per cent in February as compared to a month ago because of the increased adoption of digital technologies in India, according to the Naukri JobSpeak Index.

At an overall level, the JobSpeak Index for February, at 2,356, saw an uptick of +22 per cent in hiring activity against January'21 at 1,925. In addition, at a Y-O-Y level, the overall hiring remains flat at -2 per cent.

With the country going back to normalcy, majority of the industries observed a positive sequential uptick in hiring related activities for the first time after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

The Telecom sector has registered a sequential jump of +24 per cent in Feb'21. Other key sectors like Medical/Healthcare (28 per cent), Education/Teaching (+25 per cent), FMCG (+20 per cent), and BFSI (+17 per cent) too have shown growth in M-O-M hiring in Feb'21 while the Insurance sector saw a flat (-1%) hiring trend.

All six metros and key tier-2 cities witnessed positive hiring activities in Feb'21 Vs Jan'21. Hiring in metros showed double digit growth led by Bangalore (+31%), Hyderabad (+28 per cent) and Pune (+24 per cent). Tier-2 cities such as Ahmedabad (+31 per cent) and Vadodara (+20 per cent) also grew in Feb'21 sequentially.

With the opening of schools and colleges/universities, demand for professionals in Teaching/Education (+49 per cent) has shot up in Feb'21 Vs Jan'21. Job roles in IT-Software (+31 per cent), HR/Recruitment (+28 per cent) and Travel/Ticketing (+27 per cent) domains also see an increase in hiring sequentially. Hiring across experience bands saw an average increase of +23 per cent with 8-12 years band being at the top of the table with 27 per cent M-O-M increase in hiring activities.

Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com said, "Record growth in sequential hiring of +33 per cent and a significant Y-O-Y growth of +12 per cent in the IT sector indicates that the wave of digital transformation will make India the epicenter of the next tech boom. Around 88 per cent IT recruiters have confirmed that new jobs will be created in the coming few months as per the latest Naukri Hiring Outlook survey, further confirming that the wave of digitization will spread rapidly."