Despite the pandemic bringing the world to a halt, it failed to break the spirit of people to bounce back and thrive. Especially in India, there is a gradual spike in qualified IT personnel, embracing remote work and cloud infrastructure as the mantle to their industry sustenance. While COVID-19 hit almost all the industries badly, may it be large, medium or small scale, and even businesses that thrived on foot traffic were in losses, personal businesses also took a hit. However, thanks to the latest technologies, many professionals were able to work from home and keep the wheels rolling.

This meant that the entire process of an organization had to undergo a major shift, whether it’s HR, finance, technology or others. The result was a change in the approach to talent acquisition and deployment. Virtual hiring, training and conferencing became the pedestal upon which the formal sector of the economy was thriving. But still this doesn’t stop companies from laying off their talents, and even witnessed dip in their revenues. However, companies with enough resources to maintain their net profit took measures to curb their workforce and lay off a percentage of rotational employees. A report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) stated that the unemployment rate stood at 10.99 percent in June 2020.

However, when the industry was slowly standing on its foot, virtual hiring ensured to fill the gaps in large corporations and small businesses alike. ISR 2021 report highlights that the pandemic has influenced a noticeable shift in the workforce of India. The report features a combination of an assessment of 65,000 candidates from across India who appeared for the WNET and 150+ corporates across 15 industry sectors, who participated in the India Hiring Intent Survey.

According to the report, Delhi-NCR, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have the highest pool of employable talent in the country. It also revealed that 45.9 percent of the youth were considered highly employable resources, with Mumbai city having the most highly employable resources with 70 percent of the test takers scoring above 60 percent. This is followed by Hyderabad.

The India Skills Repot also found that candidates from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka had the most of the resource pool with most of the employable talent while Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune were the cities with most employable talent. BFSI, IT and ITeS will see most of the hiring. This will be followed by Health sector, automotive, retail, logistics and core sector including energy. While digital connectivity and internet based business will remain the most important base for hiring and expansion, the job markets will be led by states like Delhi-NCR, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Nirmal Singh, Founder & CEO, Wheebox said, “Finally Gender Gap in Employability is improving with Indian Digital revolution. One great structural change that we found is that women participation is higher than the previous 5 years. Women consist of 36% of the workforce, while men comprise 64% of all workers. The highest percentage of women in any sector was recorded in the Banking and Financial Services Industry (BFSI) making up to 46% of the employable talent in this industry. The trend is one of the most positive one for the future, especially with the Work from Home possibilities,” Singh pointed out.

The report also points towards the courses that will highly be in demand in 2021, which are BTech and MBA, with an employability score of 47 percent with BCom, BA and BPharma candidates considered among the next set of operations from FMCG manufacturers to supply chain logistics to remote asset management. While the youth employability stood at 45.9 percent consisting of highly employable resources, which is significantly lower than the previous year, the emergence of a skill gap is the reason behind this downfall.

Singh added, “The skill gap that emerged with the COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to Computer Courses, Language Classes, and Online Skill Assessments. Establishing the direct correlation of technology with employability in India is vital to realising the pathway forward. In fact, the employability landscape of India is evolving with technology that makes workplaces more collaborative and operations more efficient. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed how central technology is to everyday lifestyle.”

Interestingly, the employability of women stood at 46.8 percent as compared to 45.91 percent of men. This means that Indian employers will have to make reforms in existing infrastructure to accommodate this vast talent pool. By doing so, India can set a trend for every emerging economy to reverse the gender roles and create sustainable opportunities for the future of globalization and world commerce.

The study emphasized that a holistic approach to the employability landscape states will be a mix of technological familiarity and in-depth subject knowledge. While access to technology has made India one of the largest smartphone markets in the world, the requisites for technical education will increase exponentially much higher than ever before.