According to the findings of the 12th Antal Global Snapshot, the Indian job market has remained stable this quarter with both hiring and firing rates staying more or less the same during the last three months. In fact, 55 percent of Indian companies are recruiting new staff at the moment, while 56 percent are looking to do so in the near future. This trend is further corroborated by a study conducted by industry body Assocham, which states that healthcare, hospitality, IT and ITeS, are expected to create 16 lakh jobs this fiscal. It is expected that healthcare sector alone will add about 4.5 lakh jobs and IT & ITeS segment would create more than 3.8 lakh jobs. However, given that IT companies are cautious and are not able to take long-term business decisions, they are more inclined towards off-campus hires. According to reports, IT majors Wipro, HCL and MindTree are keen to have an on-campus to off-campus ratio of 70:30. They believe it makes economic sense to spread hiring across all months based on their needs, instead of bulk hiring during placement season and having to delay joining dates (e.g. Infosys and iGate).

Amidst the good news of hiring picking up, and the expected number of jobs to be created across sectors; the question of availability of talent with the necessary skill sets needs to be addressed. With off-campus hires gaining traction, recruiters perhaps will need to drudge a lot more to get the right people on- board. The need to do so becomes all the more evident when seen in the light of MBAUniverse.com – MeriTrac employability Study 2012, which states that only 21 percent of MBAs surveyed were employable. While one can take respite that this pertains to a specific discipline, nonetheless it does make a point as to the dearth of quality talent.