52% employees say recruiters will prefer experienced professionals over the millennials: Hiring Sentiments Survey 2020

The Indian job market is all set to welcome the New Year with a silver lining. About 41% of respondents said the job market will be positive in the Year 2020 in a TimesJobs’ ‘Hiring Sentiments 2020’ survey. The survey had 2,532 respondents (working professionals) from the top 10 industries.

The main highlights of the survey are:

Experienced talent v/s millennials or freshers:

Most respondents (52%) said that recruiters will prefer experienced professionals over the millennials in the Year 2020. Another 42% respondents said that freshers will be preferred by the recruiters.

Most professionals open to learning things in new domains:

With upskilling becoming the key requirement to stay relevant at work floors, about 51% of respondents said that they will learn things related to a new work domain in the Year 2020. Another 31% of respondents said that they will/are already taking specialised training in their domain to stay ahead of their peers. This hints at the fact that employees are cautious of the uncertain business scenario and are preparing themselves accordingly. 

Innovative mindset – the most required skill 

About 47% of the surveyed employees said that ‘innovation’ is the most sought after soft skill now, followed by decision-making ability – as voted by (30%) employees. Data analysis was ranked thereafter by 24% surveyed employees. Communications skills were ranked after all these skills. 

“The employment landscape – both in India and abroad – is undergoing a gigantic change. Companies are seeking niche talent to produce and offer out-of-the-box products, and at the same time, some jobs are going off the employment radar completely. This disruption is throwing up amazing trends as most employees are considering upskilling, and that too in a new or related domain to remain relevant. The future of recruitment will be determined by the combined impact of three primary forces – demographic changes, globalisation and adoption of technologies at the Indian firms. With that, I hope the year 2020 is a busy year for recruiters and employees alike”, said Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig.

Healthcare, BPO & BFSI sectors will be most stable in Year 2020:

Healthcare, BFSI, and BPO sectors to witness the most stable employment scenario with the least layoffs expected in the Year 2020. In the survey, most employees voted for the IT and Automobiles sectors (with 27% and 18% votes respectively) as the top two sectors where most attrition could happen in the Year 2020. This could largely be since both these sectors have witnessed big business disruptions in the year 2019, and that could have a ripple effect the New Year too. 

Junior-level professionals least prone to layoffs

About 55% of surveyed employees said that the middle management level will be most prone to layoffs in the Year 2020. While 23% of respondents said that the senior management level will face the first axe of layoffs. Employees said that the entry-level staff will be the last one on the ‘layoff’ radar.