New Delhi: A positive trend in recruitment is expected in smaller towns and mini-metros during the second half of 2012 on the back of increased hiring activities in sectors such as retail and technology, says a survey.

According to the survey by recruitment tendering platform MyHiringClub.com, hiring activities are expected to grow by five percentage points to 29 per cent in Tier-II cities such as Pune and Hyderabad during the July-December period of 2012 compared to the the preceding six months of the year.

In addition, 4 percentage growth to 23 per cent in recruitment activities may be witnessed in Tier-III cities like Jaipur, Ghaziabad and Kochi during the six months compared to January-June period of the 2012.

Tier-II and Tier-III cities seem to be gaining ground compared to the metros as companies continue to look at them as cost-effective destinations.

"There is a large pool of untapped talent in tier-II and tier-III cities which are not currently being tapped by large organisations. Now they had started utilising that talent pool for their business growth," MyHiringClub.com CEO Rajesh Kumar said.

"We expect that opening up the Indian retail sector to foreign direct investment ( FDI) would also create better quality jobs," Kumar added.

Another HR consultant Yogesh Bansal, Founder and CEO, ApnaCircle.com said, "There has been an immense growth of companies and opportunities in Tier II and Tier III cities, especially in Tech/IT, banking, retail and automobile sectors."

"These cities offer an impressive platform for companies to showcase their products or services along with job generation.

"They offer and create a profitable market primarily because the consumption patterns are constantly changing and people have begun to possess greater purchasing power than before," he added.

IT and IT enabled space, technology, retail, banking and financial services would see maximum hiring from smaller cities during the period under review.

In terms of sectoral analysis, the IT and IT enabled space is expected to account 26 per cent of total hiring from tier-II and III cities followed by retail (24 per cent), banking and financial services (24 per cent).

Among cities, Pune and Ahmedabad would contribute maximum hiring opportunities in second half of 2012 followed by Chandigarh, Jaipur and Lucknow.

The survey was conducted among more than 1,000 employees and recruitment consultants across 12 industry segments (healthcare, infrastructure, hospitality, real estate and construction,banking and finance, IT and ITeS, training and consulting, FMCG, telecom and automobile) across the country.