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The last month of 2021 saw good hiring growth in India in sectors like travel and hospitality, retail and education, owing to the festive quarter and a rebound, a new report showed on Friday.

The rebound was, however, likely to be hampered once again with the Omicron variant spread in the country this month.

According to the Naukri JobSpeak Index, the festive year-end marked an upswing in hiring activity over last year across all major metros.

"While IT has continued to drive growth in hiring, it is heartening to see a comeback from sectors of hospitality and travel, retail, and real estate," said Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com.

Top metro cities saw growth in hiring when compared with December last year. Hyderabad led at +12 per cent (on-year), growth followed by Bengaluru (+11 per cent), Mumbai (+8 per cent), Pune (+4 per cent), and Chennai (+6 per cent).

Delhi was flat and Kolkata de-grew by 3 per cent.

"We see a lot of talent shifting back to their cities of work with most companies drafting their return to work policies. As companies continue to press the pedal on their digital transformation journeys, the demand for certain functional areas and sectors will keep growing," Goyal added.

Among the emerging cities, Ahmedabad (+21 per cent) recorded the highest growth.

Hiring for new jobbers and young professionals was steady in December as demand for freshers and professionals with 4-7 years of experience remained flat.

Demand was slightly affected for professionals in the 8-12 years (-4 per cent) and 13-16 years (-9 per cent) experience segments, the report said.