Indicating a strong hiring sentiment coming back to the market, a survey on Thursday said the hiring activity went up by 8.1 per cent on a national level in June, compared to the previous month.

"It is the highest upward movement since July 2008", according to Naukri JobSpeak, the monthly job index released by Naukri.com.

Hiring activity saw a significant push in banking and finance and IT, it said, adding, Mumbai picked up hiring activity after several months of stagnancy. Of the top 13 cities, 12 recorded an uptrend in hiring activity.

Hiring activity in Mumbai picked up by 13 per cent last month as compared to May after falling for several months in succession. Chennai and Pune saw a pick up in hiring activity by 19 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.

Banking and financial services saw an increase by 22 per cent. A surge in hiring activity pushed up the indices for most of the industries.

Real estate and retail saw an increase in hiring by almost 25 per cent, with both the industries pulling out of the low hiring mode. Telecom saw a comeback with hiring activity picking up 17 per cent.

After several months of a downtrend, hiring activity in IT-Software improved by ten per cent, while IT-Hardware and BPO and ITeS remained stable. FMCG and consumer durables saw a drop in hiring activity by eight per cent and 14 per cent, respectively, the survey added.