The Indian job economy is geared up for an uptick in hiring as corporate houses embrace the post pandemic world.

Naukri.com's Hiring Outlook survey suggests that 51 per cent of recruiters indicated both new and replacement hiring in their organisations. The appetite for hiring is up as 32 per cent recruiters confirm that they would be hiring for new jobs.

Interestingly, recruiters indicating that hiring was on hold are just at 5 per cent versus 11 per cent in a similar survey conducted in September 2020.

Many businesses were impacted during the pandemic and as a result, job security was threatened across multiple sectors. However, lay-offs are becoming a thing of the past, with just 1 per cent recruiters indicating lay-offs in their organisation compared to 36 per cent in the earlier survey.

Further, almost 40 per cent of the recruiters expect hiring to go back to pre-pandemic levels in the next three months itself which is in contrast with the sentiments from an earlier survey wherein only 20 per cent recruiters expected hiring to return to normalcy within three months.

Given the boost to digitisation, IT roles remain the most in-demand with 50 per cent of recruiters indicating strong hiring in this segment. Roles in Marketing and Business Development are also gaining traction with almost 38 per cent recruiters expressing intent to hire for these roles. From an experience standpoint, recruiters expect to hire the most in the experience bracket of 3-5 years, according to the survey.

Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com, said "Hiring outlook showcases an upbeat sentiment amongst the recruiters and consultants. In fact, employers are also positive about extending increments to their employees. This is a strong indicator that businesses are moving towards actioning their growth plans and not just survival or business continuity strategies."

Normalcy on the horizon is foreseen as employers have a positive outlook to extend increments to their employees. Twenty seven per cent recruiters plan to rollout increments greater than 15 per cent in their respective organisations while the most opted for increment bracket is 5 -10 per cent as per 35 per cent of the recruiters.

Many job seekers were unsure of switching during the pandemic but as markets have stabilised, one-third recruiters expect attrition in the range of 10 – 20 per cent while another 7 per cent foresee attrition levels greater than 20 per cent. The bulk of this is expected from employees with 1-5 years of experience. Given a surge in demand, IT roles can also witness higher attrition.

With the jobs market back to its hiring ways, recruiters have predicted that retaining & attracting skilled employees will be a challenge in the coming six months. Aligning with that, 45 per cent recruiters are expecting an intense talent crunch and the experience band of three- five years is expected to be the most impacted.

Campus hiring situation is showing slow, yet steady improvement as one-third recruiters give a green signal to their hiring plans versus a 24 per cent in the September '20 survey.

India Inc. is now moving back to office with 43 per cent recruiters confirming the same, a significant improvement as compared to 27 per cent recruiters in the survey done during September 20.