Slowdown hits online hiring activity: Report
Online hiring activity registered a decline of nearly 4% in July over the same month a year ago amid weak economic conditions, according to a research by job portal Monster.com.

On a month-to-month basis, the index witnessed even a sharper decline as it was down by 6.10% to 123 in July from 131 it registered in June.

"The decline in annual growth is reflective of the prevailing challenging economic conditions. Keeping in mind the uncertain economic/ political scenario, companies are adopting a cautious approach while hiring which is reflected in the index," Monster.com (India/ Middle-East/South-East Asia) Managing Director Sanjay Modi said.

A sectoral analysis shows that 12 of the 27 industry sectors monitored by the Monster Employment Index registered expansion in online recruitment activity between July 2012 and July 2013.

While hiring in telecom/ISP sector improved by 20% followed by BPO/ITeS sector (up 18%), chemicals/ plastic/ rubber, paints, fertiliser/ pesticides (down 13%) showed steepest annual decline.

Online demand improved in six of 13 occupational groups monitored by the Monster Employment Index between July 2012 and July 2013.

The most substantial annual gains amongst occupational groups was registered in customer service (up 18 per cent) followed by hospitality and travel (up 10%).

Among occupation groups, senior management exhibited the steepest annual decline (down 56%).

Online recruitment activity was up on the year in six of 13 locations monitored by the index.

Kolkata (up 21%) followed by Chandigarh (up 15%) led all cities in annual growth, while, among major metro-areas, Kolkata (up 21%) followed by Hyderabad (up 2%) registered the highest annual growth.

The Monster Employment Index India is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career Web sites and online job listings across India.