The Indian job economy is all set for an uptick in hiring as corporates embrace the post pandemic world. Naukri.com's Hiring Outlook survey found that about 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 Vs 11 per cent in a similar survey conducted in Sept, 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 organization 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. With digitization being the key priority across companies, it is encouraging to see the IT sector lead hiring in the coming months."

Normalcy on the horizon is foreseen as employers have a positive outlook to extend increments to their employees. 27 per cent recruiters plan to rollout increments greater than 15 per cent in their respective organizations while the most opted for increment bracket is 5 per cent -10 per cent as per 35 per cent of the recruiters.