India's job market witnesses 4% growth in Jan 2025; FMCG, pharma sectors lead: Naukri

Indian job market reported a 4 percent growth in January 2025, according to a report by Naukri JobSpeak.

Among the sectors, the FMCG sector saw 16 percent growth in hiring, followed by FMCG at 16 percent and Pharma/Biotech at 11 percent, respectively. The FMCG sector witnessed growth in Bengaluru (30 percent) and Chennai (28 percent).

According to Naukri's Chief Business Officer Dr Pawan Goyal, January 2024 witnessed an 11 percent of de-growth in hiring.

"2025 seems to have started on a positive note. The 4 percent hiring growth is tempered as IT recovery settles in; however, strong growth in most core sectors including FMCG, Pharma, Insurance, and Hospitality is a good sign and augurs well for a cracking 2025 in terms of white-collar hiring," Goyal added.

AI/ML industries have continued to witness a boost in hiring at above 26 percent in January 2025.

Whereas the Hospitality and Pharma sectors remained the hotspots for freshers hiring, witnessing 18 percent and 10 percent growth.

Banking and Financial Services unicorns also demonstrated growth in jobs with 34 percent growth, followed by IT unicorns registering 16 percent hiring.

The fresher hiring was driven by non-IT sectors like Design and Retail. In contrast, the growth in hiring for seasoned professionals was driven by traditional sectors like FMCG and Pharma at 9 percent in January.

The advertising and PR industry saw a 5 percent rise in hiring whereas the Media/Dotcom/Entertainment companies witnessed 14 hiring growth.