Originally published in Business Insider

The hiring activity in India saw a 30% decrease in the June quarter compared to the same period last year as the country saw a rise in contractual jobs, a new report said on Tuesday.

However, the June quarter witnessed a 13 per cent increase in the number of work-from-home jobs as compared to Q2 2019.

Furthermore, the demand for contract workforce increased by 11 per cent in Q2 from the same period last year, while the demand for full-time employees decreased by 13.8 per cent, according to data from SCIKEY talent commerce platform, a talent marketplace.

IT and IT Services sectors indicated recovery in contractual jobs in the June quarter.

"Cloud businesses and digital transformation is the need of the hour and one of the top most requirements for all industries to adapt to the new normal," said Karunjit Kumar Dhir, Co-Founder SCIKEY.

"This will definitely have a positive impact on the hiring sentiments among techies who will now look for jobs in India especially due to the strain in H-1B visas".

The pandemic has given rise to a huge number of contract workers for a plug and play model allowing companies to reduce their hiring costs.

In the packaging, IT, telecom and ecommerce industry, some of the top job roles companies are looking for are developer, analyst, management profiles, tester, engineer, senior and consultants.

An earlier study from the company found that there was an uptick in hiring senior executives in India compared to freshers and mid-level executives in the pandemic period (April to July) as the enterprises looked to invest in talent at the very top levels.

Indian companies hired 72 per cent of top executives as compared to 28 per cent of freshers and mid-level executives in the reported period.