Hiring activity declined 6 per cent year-on-year in October as recruiters adopted a cautious approach in adding new workforce, a report said on Tuesday.

Sequentially, the hiring activity has dropped by 5 per cent following the changing patterns in the startup ecosystem, funding winter and fears of an upcoming recession, according to the Monster Employment Index (MEI).

However, with companies ramping up internal initiatives to facilitate growth and government interventions in promising sectors, hiring projections for the coming months are expected to pick up, it added.

The Monster Employment Index is a broad and comprehensive monthly analysis of online job posting activity conducted by Monster India.

The report further revealed that even as there has been a noticeable slowdown in hiring among industries following months of robust job demand, key sectors like automation, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) are expected to show an increased intent to hire.

However, hiring in BPO/ITES (-16 per cent) and media and entertainment (-24 per cent) continued to demonstrate a declining trend in October 2022 from the year-ago level.

IT (-19 per cent) hiring has slowed down due to increased margin pressure, rising costs and inflation, the report said.

Jobs in Education (-11 per cent) are also on the decline following major upheavals in the ed-tech industry, which is haunted by cost cuts and pressure to show profits, it added.

Meanwhile, the report found that among the locations monitored tier II cities have reported positive growth on an annual basis.

Coimbatore and Ahmedabad hold steady in October with a marginal increase in hiring at 1 per cent annually, it added.

Among tier I cities, hiring remained stable in Mumbai whereas metros such as Bangalore (-11 per cent), Kolkata (-14 per cent), Delhi-NCR (-2 per cent) and Hyderabad (-5 per cent) posted a downward trend in recruitment activities.

However, jobs in BFSI saw high demand across most tier I cities monitored by the Index.

"While macroeconomic conditions have pushed companies to adopt a watchful approach to hiring, the need for skilled talent is unlikely to ever go away. Hence, it is important that today's workforce upskill and reskill themselves on an individual and organisational level," Monster.com, a Quess company, CEO Sekhar Garisa said.