Indian employers forecast an increase of 14.5% in hiring outlook next year, according to the India Skills Report 2016. Among sectors, retail, e-commerce, transport and logistics, telecom, pharma and healthcare are expected to lead the numbers with over 25% increase in hiring followed by banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) at 15-25%. The positive hiring sentiment in the economy reflects a strong optimism for growth in the coming year.
Wheebox, in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), PeopleStrong, LinkedIn and Association of Indian Universities has brought out the third edition of India Skills Report, which presents not only the employability factor of the youth from across the country from different educational background but also the needs and expectations of the employers.
The Hiring Intent Survey in the report is based on responses from about 150 employers, spread across 12 major sectors to get an idea of job demand and potential hiring forecasts for the coming year.
According to the survey, engineering hires would continue to dominate with 25% of all hires followed by graduates with 23% and management graduates with 16%. The top five states in terms of hiring activity are projected as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Punjab.
An important question that often crosses the mind of the candidate is what the employers are looking for? What is that one skill that one needs to bag a job? The survey questioned the employers about the single most important thing they want in their prospective employees. Employers across industries voted for domain expertise and integrity and values in almost equal measure (28% and 27% respectively). This was followed by interpersonal skill and learning agility (18%).
Another important question that job seeker has is where do the employers look for the candidates. What is their preferred sourcing channel? For most employers, internal referrals came across the most preferred sourcing channel (21%), closely followed by job portals (20%). When questioned about the preferred age group, the overall trend shows a clear inclination towards young candidates with about 80% employers preferring to hire candidates of age 30 years and below.