Freshers' hiring picks up steam; experts say momentum likely to continue

The hiring sentiment for freshers and entry-level professionals has improved in the last three months as compared to the initial months of Covid-19 and experts suggest the positive momentum is likely to continue.

Some of the sectors that are driving the demand for freshers are IT, ecommerce, fintech, edutech, auto, and EV segment in Auto. BPO, physical retail roles - front office/receptionist, retail Store managers/executives, field sales and accountants are other areas which have seen a spike in freshers’ hiring.

Freshers hiring activity is up by 300% in comparison to what it was three months ago, according to Kaushik Banerjee, Vice President and Business Head, freshersworld.com.

There has been a 433% jump in job postings on the platform since April. During April there were 9,000 job postings on the platform; currently there are close to 39,000 job postings.

“There is also a 1.45x jump in new registrations indicating recovery in the interest to hire freshers. The demand for freshers is expected to reach the pre-Covid levels by June 2021,” says Banerjee.

According to the Teamlease Employment Outlook report, the intent to hire for entry-level professionals has risen by 2% for the January-March period in comparison to the October-December period.

Prior to Covid-19, this hiring process for freshers involved travelling to campuses across the country but the pandemic has resulted in a shift to virtual mode of campus hiring.

Campus hiring makes up about 10-15% of all tech hires for most mid-sized to large companies. HackerEarth Assessments platform has seen an approximate three-fold growth in campus hiring assessments in the last few months.

Alfred Alexander – VP marketing at HackerEarth says, ”While this does not necessarily indicate increased fresher hiring overall, it does show that there has been a shift from manual pen-and-paper assessments on campus to online, objective skill-based assessments."

HackerEarth, which works with many tech companies to facilitate campus hiring activities expects a 50% increase in campus hiring activities in the next year.

“One of the changes that was adopted during the pandemic was to move all university hiring virtual. This is a change that we believe is here to stay,” says Alexander.

The company's recent developer recruitment survey showed that upskilling opportunities are one of the key propositions that developers ask for, during the hiring process. Alexander believes this will remain an important value proposition even for freshers who would want to join companies where they can grow in their roles.

Talking about the impact of Covid-19 on remuneration, Kapil Sharma, Chief Sales Officer at Collabera Technologies says that hiring may be low but remuneration for freshers has not been affected much by the pandemic.

“Remuneration has remained more or less the same as last year. In fact, some companies are now open to paying more for candidates with the right niche digital tech skills,” says Sharma.

“2020 saw creations of new job roles with organisations focusing on training and upskilling of talents. Industry leaders are now open to hire freshers and train them as per the required job roles. However, in 2021, factors like creativity, out-of-the-box thinking, social skills and in-depth problem solving skills will determine the success of entry-level job seekers,” he adds.