According to the Jobs Jobspeak Index, hiring in the pharma/biotech sector showed resilience, with significant growth in cities such as Hyderabad (18 percent), Baroda (27 percent), and Mumbai (14 percent).

Hiring was dominated by professionals with more than 16 years of experience, leading to a significant growth of 58 percent year-on-year.

Dr. Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com, said, “Gujarat has been a ray of hope in an otherwise turbulent market and now it is encouraging to see emerging cities like Jodhpur and Udaipur in Rajasthan joining the race.”

In the IT sector, Jaipur (16 per cent), Kochi (6 per cent) and Delhi-NCR (4 per cent) emerged as bright spots.

According to the report, hiring among small startups remained low, while unicorns recorded a surprising 30 percent growth.

Maintaining its momentum, the FMCG sector was buoyed by strong performance in Bengaluru (24 per cent), Delhi (23 per cent), and Mumbai (34 per cent).

While new hires saw a modest 3 per cent growth, professionals with more than 16 years of experience saw a robust 41 per cent growth, the report said.