India Inc's hiring activity picked up by 1.3 per cent in July with improvement in recruitment in IT, real estate and retail sectors, says a survey by job portal Naukri.com.

On a three monthly moving average, the index inched up from 686 in June to 703 in July with industries including real estate, semiconductors, banking, auto and IT, witnessing an improvement, the survey said.

"The uptrend over consecutive months is encouraging. Improvement in hiring activity in lagging industries, such as IT, real estate, retail and auto, echoes optimism. However, continued increases in hiring activity over the next few months will indicate a turnaround in economic activity and in hiring," Info Edge, owner of naukri.com, National Head Marketing and Communications Sumeet Singh said.

In June, the hiring activity had increased 8.1 per cent over the previous month. Recruitment activity in the IT industry remained in the green with hiring up by four per cent in IT-software, seven per cent up in IT-hardware and networking and three per cent up in ITeS and BPO.

Among cities, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad saw an improvement, while Bangalore, Chennai and Pune saw a dip, in hiring activity. Hiring was up in Pharma, Auto and IT industry. July '09 witnessed an increase in demand for people with over 8 years of work experience.

On a continued uptrend, demand went up by 2% for hospitality professionals.