As 2024 comes to a close, campus hiring trends have provided valuable insights into the evolving dynamics of the job market. This year has been marked by significant changes in how organisations and candidates navigate the employment landscape, reflecting broader societal and economic priorities. One of the standout themes of 2024 has been the growing emphasis on sustainability in hiring practices. “We have seen an increase in green jobs as sustainability has become a priority for corporate culture. Previously, in the past 2-3 years, placement companies were solely focused on recruiting candidates with technical expertise in areas such as AI, data analytics, digital marketing, and machine learning, highlighting the shift toward future-focused industries.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) reportedly plans to increase its hiring of fresh graduates from engineering campuses in the upcoming fiscal year (FY26), exceeding the current year's commitment of 40,000. TCS' Chief Human Resources Officer Milind Lakkad told Economic Times that this decision is driven by optimistic growth projections. The IT giant is on track to onboard the planned 40,000 freshers in FY25, providing training in cutting-edge technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI (GenAI). "I expect that number to go up a bit more in FY26," Lakkad stated, noting that the company's planning for the next fiscal year has already commenced.

For an industry that thrives on skilled labour, the hospitality sector is struggling to find employees which boils down to the scarcity of skilled individuals in the sector. Although the nation has an array of institutions dedicated to education and skill development in the hospitality sector, there is a lack of interest among the youth to join the industry. Despite these adverse challenges, the tourism and hospitality industry contributes nearly six to seven per cent towards the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and supports nearly 4.3 crore jobs in India. For an industry as big as this, the scarcity of skilled labour poses a major concern, the output for major educational institutions have fallen significantly forcing the industry to rely on raw talent.

India has over 65% of the workforce less than 35 years of age. Their choices around jobs and employability have far reaching consequences. Wheebox ETS India Skills Report 2025, in collaboration with CII, Taggd, AICTE, and AIU, shared the current status on employability as well as a roadmap for the skills plan for the country for 2030.

Employability levels: Indian graduates saw a rise in employability by 7% this year compared to 51.25% last year based on the findings from the report. The report highlights how skilled people in India can drive innovation across sectors. In the short term, however, employability remains the highest for B.Tech and MBA disciplines.

BENGALURU: With the expansion of Global Capability Centers (GCCs) and multi-cloud adoption, the IT sector will drive 15% growth in hiring in 2025, as per the latest data from jobs platform foundit. It is followed by retail with 12% growth, telecommunications 11% and Banking and Financial Services (BFSI) with 10% growth. foundit said the telecom sector’s 11% forecasted growth is driven by advancements in AI, 5G, and IoT, with demand for skills in edge computing, SDN (software-defined networking), NFV (network function virtualisation) and cybersecurity. Overall, the talent platform predicts a 9% hiring growth in the country in 2025.