New Delhi, Aug 2 (IANS): Hiring in India saw a 12 per cent increase in July compared to the same month last year, as most sectors reported healthy double-digit growths with pharma/biotech and FMCG leading the way, a report showed on Friday.

Compared to June, there was an 11 per cent growth in hiring (quarter-on-quarter), according to the Naukri JobSpeak Index.

The pharma/biotech sector recorded a substantial 26 per cent YoY increase, with Baroda (61 per cent) and Hyderabad (39 per cent) driving the surge.

Similarly, hiring in the FMCG sector grew by 26 per cent, led by Bengaluru (52 per cent) and Kolkata (43 per cent). The real estate sector also demonstrated a strong 23 per cent growth in hiring, driven by Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad, the data showed.

The IT sector experienced a healthy 17 per cent growth in July as compared to last year.

"This is the first month this year that we have seen positive growth, and the fact that it's cutting across sectors and geographies, makes it truly promising," said Dr Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer of Naukri. This broad-based, positive shift could potentially be the onset of an upcycle in the Indian white-collar job market, he added.

Among the roles seeing the highest growth in hiring were machine learning engineers, data scientists, BI managers, and product managers. Global Capability Centres (GCC) saw a 12 per cent YoY increase, driven by hiring in Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad. Gujarat continued to lead the pack with Rajkot, Jamnagar, and Baroda recording 39 per cent, 38 per cent and 25 per cent growth, respectively. According to the report, Hyderabad emerged as a key hub for job creation across multiple key industries.