Employability improves in 2021 led by IT, education, financial services: Report

Mumbai: Employability in the country has improved this year as 46.2 per cent of the youth were found highly employable against the last year's 45.97 per cent mainly led by IT, education, financial services sectors, according to a report.

According to India Skills Report 2022 by Wheebox, overall 46.2 per cent of the youth were found to be highly employable against last year's employability of 45.97 per cent.

Women employable pool is steadily increasing, at 51.44 per cent, while 45.97 per cent of men were found highly employable, said the report.

Another trend that has picked up is that 88.6 per cent graduates are seeking internship opportunities, it added.

The report further revealed that candidates from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala had the highest employability compared to last year which was Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.

Among these, B.Tech graduates and MBA graduates were found to be the most employable talent from the various domains, it revealed.

While, Pune, Lucknow and Trivandrum were with the most employable talent and the most preferred cities for work by graduates were Bangalore, Kochi and Chennai.

"The pandemic has shown us that remote learning and remote work are going to become the new normal for many sectors across IT, Business Consultancy, Financial Services and very specifically one industry leading the game, the Education Industry," Wheebox founder and CEO Nirmal Singh said.

The India Skills Report is a combination of an assessment of 3 lakh candidates across India, who appeared for the Wheebox National Employability Test (WNET), and 150 corporates across 15 industries who participated in the India Hiring Intent survey.

The report found that the demand for qualified and skilled professionals will be driven by sectors including IT/ITES, Pharmaceutical, E-Commerce and BFSI.

The hiring in these sectors is expected to increase by 20 per cent for freshers in 2022 compared to 2021.

Further, the report said compared to the 36 per cent of women participation in the workforce last year, this year has witnessed a similar participation with 32.8 per cent of women employed in the workforce across diverse industry verticals.

Though, 67.2 per cent of men make up the larger portion of employed professionals, women participation in the workforce is being encouraged by more companies with an intent to hire more women, it noted.

Telangana was found to have the highest 39.42 per cent of job-ready women followed by Karnataka with 35.44 per cent, it added.