New Delhi, Jul 8 (IANS): In a silver lining amid the growing Covid-19 cases, the hiring activity in India saw 33 per cent improvement in June compared to May, a new Naukri.com report said on Wednesday, adding that the hiring activity was still down by a massive 44 per cent (year-on-year) when compared to the same period last year.

The key sectors like FMCG (58 per cent), accounting (53 per cent), BPO/ITES (48 per cent), IT-hardware (37 per cent) and IT-software (19 per cent) drove the surge in June, according to the Naukri JobSpeak Index.

In addition, functional roles in education/teaching (49 per cent), pharma/biotech (36 per cent) and sales/business development (33 per cent) saw an uptick.

Hiring across experience levels also grew by an average of 28 per cent in June as compared to May led by the entry-level executives' band.

"It is encouraging to see that the announcement of Unlock 1.0 in India has resulted in the month on month progressive growth in hiring. We are hopeful that the hiring activity will bounce back in the coming months," said Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com.

When it comes to decline, Mumbai saw a decline by 56 per cent, followed by Delhi (-54 per cent) and Chennai (-52 per cent).

There was an across the board decline in hiring at varied experience levels with the entry-level experience bands (0 to 3 years experience) witnessing the sharpest decline of 47% followed by a 44 per cent decline in hiring for senior-level executives. (4-7 years of experience).

Hiring in hospitality, retail and auto sectors has been the most impacted due to the lockdown.

The June decline in hiring is led by industries like hotel/restaurant/travel/airlines (-79 per cent), retail (-68 per cent), auto/ancillary (-76 per cent), and BFSI (-55 per cent).

Key industries like pharma/biotech/clinical research (-28 per cent), BPO/ITES (-42 per cent) and IT-software (-42 per cent) were less affected (YoY).