Hiring for freshers improving; likely to continue till end of FY21: Experts

Demand for freshers, which was the hardest hit following the lockdown to curb the spread of Covid, has seen an uptick since June and this trend is likely to continue till the year end, say experts

Demand for freshers, which was the hardest hit following the lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, has seen an uptick since June and this trend is likely to continue till the end of this financial year, say experts.

The sectors that are witnessing significant uptrend include EdTech and e-Learning followed by healthcare, HR tech and FinTech.

"Freshers hiring had dropped down to mere 1.5 lakh during March 25-April 30,from the average 5 lakhs per month. However, the scenario is improving and currently there are around 3.5 lacsfresher job openings listed on the portal, Teamlease.com and Freshersworld.com VP and Business Head Kaushik Banerjee told PTI.

Hiring began to look up for freshers in late June and is likely to pick up more strength during September-November period, he noted.

The sectors where these freshers recruitment are taking place the most include EdTech and e-Learning followed by healthcare, HR tech and FinTech. Besides, FMCG, IT and ITES, Manufacturing, BFSI, Telecom, and Semiconductor industries have also sprung back into action, he added.

According to CIEL HR ServicesDirector and CEO Aditya Mishra, most companies were impacted by demand contraction but are betting on recovery and are hoping to witness pre-COVID levels of demand in January-March 2021.

"Through the weeks of unlocking, freshers hiring has started in the above sectors. About 65 per cent of the freshers who were holding offers slated to join in May-September have found placements. However, the remaining ones are struggling to find work," he said.

Considering the off-campus hiring, on an overall basis fresher hiring in the first half (April-September) is about 75 per cent of the last year, he pointed out.

Further, he said, large organisations with their campus-hiring infrastructure will adopt new ways of holding campus connect and hiring because fresher hiring is a critical component of hiring strategy for large organisations.

However, we expect salary levels offered in the campuses to decline up to 10 per cent this year, he opined.

Meanwhile, companies have evolved new methods of induction and training for new joinees using various online platforms of learning, a combination of self-paced learning and instructor-led live classes held on video platforms, he added.

Indeed India Managing Director Sashi Kumar stated that as per the global job site's data job postings for freshers saw a 26 per cent decline from March to April 2020, following the implementation of the lockdown.

"After this slump, job postings for freshers began to see a recovery from June onwards. Job postings for freshers saw a 57 per cent increase from just May to June. In parallel, postings for remote fresher jobs began to pick up from May. There was a 157 per cent increase in remote job postings for freshers from April to May," he said.

While job postings for freshers have improved marginally between April and August, however, remote job postings for fresher roles have seen a 364 per cent increase during the same time period, indicating changing modes of work, said Kumar.

Leading roles for freshers in terms of hiring include Administration roles (14 per cent), Tech Software roles (10 per cent), Customer Servicing roles (8 per cent), Marketing roles (5 per cent) and Sales roles (4 per cent), he added.