Job prospects look up for freshers: Survey

Job prospects of freshers have started brightening up. Around 15 per cent companies, especially those in the technology space, have indicated plans to hire freshers, which is up from 6 per cent and 9 per cent during the pandemic.

During the lock-down and unlock phases the intent to hire freshers among companies had dipped to the lows of 6 per cent and 9 per cent respectively. This, however, has improved to 15 per cent for February-April 2021. This, however, is nowhere near the prepandemic levels when 38 per cent companies had the intent to hire, finds a report by Teamlease Services.

Bengaluru has the highest proportion of employers–41 per cent— who have an intent to hire, followed by Mumbai at 29 per cent and Delhi 24 per cent. The report analyses insights gathered from 815 employers, across 18 sectors and 14 cities in India.

Information technology, telecommunications, e-commerce and technology start-ups seem to be the leaders in terms of hiring intent. Some of the jobs which need fresh hands include business development—sales professionals, graphic designers, digital marketing associates, content writers and web developers. For these jobs, employers expect freshers to possess domain skills like spreadsheet skills, product/service marketing, data analytics, web development and mobile app development.

Hence, most popular courses freshers can take up to improve their employability are of auto-mation, software development and graphics design.

“For the period February-April, 2021, freshers hiring intent has improved by 2.5 times from the lockdown period...what stood out was the growing focus on specialised skills that employers expect from fresh job entrants,” said Shantanu Rooj, founder and CEO, TeamLease EdTech.