Medium and small cities like Pune, Agra and Meerut rather than top metros have emerged as hot destinations for job aspirants by clinching a lion's share -- 60 per cent of the total jobs created in the country last fiscal, an Assocham study said.

Sector-wise, it was IT which had grabbed the biggest pie with 30 per cent of the total employment generation share during the period, the industry chamber said in its report.

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"Rather than tier I cities, tier II and III cities are emerging as prominent destinations for companies to provide job opportunities for aspirants," Assocham, which claimed analysing trends of job openings from a sample of 6.54 lakh (654,000) employment opportunities generated in 2010-11, said.

The study, it said, was conducted in 56 cities covering 32 sectors.

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Seventeen tier-II cities such as Pune, Bhubaneshwar, Surat, Chandigarh and Lucknow grabbed 38.8 per cent share of the total opening and created 2,53,702 jobs, it added.

As many as 33 tier-III cities -- Allahabad, Udaipur, Agra, Ajmer, Kota and Meerut accounted for 23 per cent share with 1,50,391 new jobs during the last fiscal, as per study.

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The study also indicated that till recently big cities like Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru were the fastest job generating destinations with an estimated 2,49,779 jobs created during 2009-10 fiscal.

"But the trend is clearly changing," it said.

Also, it indicated that tier-II and III cities are likely to generate 40 per cent more jobs in the near future.

As far as the employment creating sectors were concerned, the study said after IT which commanded 30 per cent share, education remained second with 8.94 per cent portion followed by real estate which constituted 7.95 per cent.