Bangalore: The recession has brought BPO jobs to an important note, with recruitments in the industry nearly slipping by half, and on-the-spot hiring stopped. Initially, a candidate could just walk in and get hired on the spot at an asking salary, but now candidates are competing to grab position in the industry.

Earlier a BPO hiring 400 people hardly caused a ripple, but a recent instance of a mad rush for Noida based Steria BPO's 400 recruitments showed the changing trend. "We got applications from 5,000 candidates. This is unusual for the BPO industry where walk in-interviews were the trend," Chairman and CEO Mukesh Aghi said to Financial Chronicle. Another life-cycle content management services and outsourcing firm in Delhi, Aptara, has seen a similar trend in recruitments.

Before the economic downturn, BPO rolls grew at over 30 percent a year to a formidable 7,00,000 and almost 8,000 people were recruited every month.