Press Release

Hiring Activity down by 8% in Mar 09 as Compared to Feb 09: Naukri JobSpeak

April 16 2009

Monthly Update of Naukri JobSpeak – Mar '09

  • The overall Job Index declined by 8% from 774 in Feb '09 to 711 in Mar'09
  • Banking and Insurance professionals saw a steep decline in hiring activity
  • Hiring activity in Mumbai was at its lowest in Mar'09, other cities also saw a decline in the index. Smaller cities saw an improvement in hiring activity.
  • Insurance, Banking and Finance, Oil and Gas saw a steep drop in the Index in Mar'09

New Delhi, April 16, 2009: Naukri JobSpeak index at 711, indicates a fall by 8% as compared to 774 in Feb'09. The closing of the Financial Year witnessed a drop in hiring activity across most sectors, with core industries like Banking and Insurance, IT- Software, Oil and Gas seeing a decline in the index.

On the report, Sumeet Singh, National Head – Marketing and Corp Comm, Info Edge (India) Ltd said, "March was a month of caution for India Inc. Sectors like Healthcare, Pharma, and Telecom were slightly better positioned than other sectors. But virtually everyone is lower than what they were."

Most cities saw a decline in the index. Mumbai was the most impacted city followed by Ahmedabad and Baroda. Banking and Insurance professionals, IT – Software and Sales & Business Development professionals saw an acute fall in demand.

City wise Analysis: Hiring activity in Mumbai at its lowest in Mar'09, other cities also see a decline in jobs
Out of the top 13 cities, 9 cities saw a downward movement in hiring activity including Delhi, Mumbai Bengaluru, Hyderabad Ahmedabad and Chandigarh. Mumbai saw a steep fall in hiring activity and the index moved to 604, it's lowest since July. Cochin and Coimbatore saw an improvement in hiring activity. Coimbatore saw an increase in hiring activity by 18% in Mar '09 as compared to Feb '09

Industry Analysis: Insurance, Banking and Finance, Oil and Gas saw a steep drop in the Index in Mar'09
The year ending month saw a downturn in hiring activity across most sectors. Insurance, Banking and Finance, Oil and Gas saw a steep drop in the Index in Mar '09 as compared to Feb '09. Hiring activity in Insurance plunged by 28% in Mar'09 as compared to Feb '09, the index hit a low of 663. The index for the Banking and Financial Services saw a decline in jobs by 17% in Mar'09 as compared to Feb'09. The index for Healthcare and IT – Hardware & Networking inched up by 6-7% in Mar '09 as compared to Feb '09.

Functional Area / Department Analysis: Banking and Insurance professionals saw a steep decline in jobs
Banking and Insurance professionals saw a drop in the hiring activity by 30% during Mar '09 as compared to Feb'09. Sales and Business Development professionals saw a decrease in hiring activity after several months of continued increase in jobs as the index moved down by 12% to 841 in Mar '09.There has been no reprieve for IT – Software professionals, as the index moved down further from 678 in Feb '09 to 578 in Mar'09. The demand for ITes professionals saw a marginal decline of 3%.

Index of Total Jobs
On Naukri.com, a job expires in a month, unless refreshed by an employer. The Naukri JobSpeak so far considered only new jobs added to the site. While the scenario on New Jobs has been declining so far and indicates a drop in the index to the extent of 28.9% since Jul'09, if the total jobs available on the site are considered, which includes new jobs and refreshed jobs, the index indicates a fall in jobs by 18.4% since Jul'09.

As per the Total Jobs, the index hit a high of 1004 in Sep '08, and hit a low in Dec '08. In Mar '09, the index at 816 indicates a decline of 7% since Feb '09.

Methodology
The index has been calculated based on job listings added to the site month on month. July 2008 has been taken as the base month with a score of 1000 and the subsequent monthly index is compared with data for July. Data has been sourced from Naukri.com and it reflects job listings and therefore hiring trends on the site. Jobs have been categorised by location, functional area, industry, experience bucket. The index has been analysed across Cities/ Functional Area - Deptt / Industry verticals. The report (produced monthly) shows hiring trends across industry sectors, geography and functional areas. More than 32500 national and international clients use Naukri.com, leading to high reliability of data.

About Naukri.com
Naukri.com, India's No. 1 job site and the flagship brand of Info Edge revolutionized the concept of recruitment in India. Since its inception in 1997, Naukri.com has seen exponential growth year after year. Info Edge completed a successful IPO in November 2006 and became the first internet company to list in India.

Naukri.com is a recruitment platform that provides hiring-related services to the corporate/ recruiters, placement agencies and to job seekers in India and overseas. It offers multiple products like Resume Database Access, and Response Management tools and its services include Job Postings, and branding solutions on the site. With 2,00,000 jobs live at any point, Naukri.com serviced over 32500 corporate clients in 2007-2008.

The company has over 1600 people operating through 61 offices in 40 cities in India and overseas offices in Dubai, Riyadh and Bahrain.

Press Release 16th April 2009

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