Amid aggressive campus hiring, and the fight for tech talent, India Inc, India’s formal jobs sector, is still at least a quarter away from reaching pre-Covid levels of hiring, reports Business Standard, citing a number of staffing executives. Lohit Bhatia, president, Indian Staffing Federation said the next four weeks will be crucial in deciding whether hiring reaches pre-Covid levels. Post the effect of the second Covid wave (April-May 2021), a lot of hiring till now has been focused on specific skill segments, and has not been very broad based, experts said. The thrust has been on entry-level, junior, and mid-career job positions. However, early trends indicate that within the next four weeks a host of businesses across sectors are expected to roll out their hiring plans for the festive season, which typically kicks off in August, and goes up to December.

Sanjay Shetty, director, professional search & selection, and strategic accounts, at Randstad India expects festival or seasonal hiring to jump by 30%-35% this year. That is on a Covid-hit lower base of the same period last year. This also comes with a caveat. “If the third-wave comes, all equations go out of the window,” said Shetty.