MUMBAI/KOLKATA:How’s the white collar job market?Depends on which white collar job market you are talking about.1. For entry level office jobs for graduates and post graduates, the situation is grim and will continue to be till the economy revives considerably2. For the suits – CXO level jobs – hiring outlook is good, especially for those skilled in digital roles3. For some specialists, for example, software engineers, reskilling is a must to avoid irrelevance4. For some sectors/activities, for example, KPOs , life sciences, healthcare, renewable energy, project engineering, the immediate future for employment looks better.ET takes a snapshot of each of these realities.Here’s a sobering demonstration of the current reality at the entry level of white collar job market – the young person who delivered a book or biryani to your doorstep, fulfilling your online order, is a post-graduate.Post-graduates and graduates as delivery staff for online merchants number close to 25,000, according to staffing firm Teamlease. These are young Indians who have waited…and waited…for an “office job” that graduates and post-graduates seek, not found any, and taken what’s available.The big question for India’s graduates is of course when will jobs that “match” their qualifications be available again. HR and industry observers say the renewed mandate for BJP offers political stability and is a positive context for job-creation. But the government’s economic policy has to deliver. And, also, for those post-graduate delivery staff who want to ride an office desk instead of a noisy two-wheeler, the waiting time will be longish.Expert recommendations on what will revive the white collar job market closely mirror wish lists on economic policy – boost consumption, ease liquidity, further liberalize rules that govern entrepreneurship, incentivize manufacturing…No one expects a quick turnaround, meanwhile job market numbers look more and more grim. Manpower Employment Outlook survey shows only 13% of companies in the country plan to hire more people in the July-September quarter, down from 16% in the same quarter last year. The survey, which tracked 4,951 firms across industries, shows 61% employers anticipate no change at all in their payrolls.“I don't expect to see a miracle in the next few months….Critical changes if done with a sense of urgency will create a cascading effect and unleash the entrepreneurial spirits which will eventually create all kinds of jobs,” says TN Hari, head of human resources at BigBasket.“Government initiatives to increase consumption is the key,” says Ajit Isaac, chairman and managing director of business services provider Quess Corp. Issac believes the white collar job market “will take some time to recover”.“The government needs to give thrust to certain sectors that has the potential to create more jobs such as construction, tourism, exports of garments, and such others…,” believes Harsh Mariwala, chairman of Marico.Niranjan Hiranandani, managing director of Hiranandani group wants urgent action on liquidity. “The lack of liquidity in the market is the biggest problem…when you talk about employment…if you can’t improve the liquidity situation, growth is just a number,” he says.CEO/CXO hiring usually remains relatively insulated from economic troughs, unless they are severe. HR experts see good hiring prospects for new age businesses such as ed-tech, fin-tech, med-tech, as well as roles on the digital side of other businesses.Search industry professionals say CXOs from established sectors such as FMCG and services are moving to new age businesses, prompting companies in the former category to look out for talent.“Adding of more geographies to portfolios will mean more CEO/CXO hiring,” says Shailja Dutt, founder & chairperson of executive search firm Stellar Search. Also, in some traditional companies a large portion of the top management is ageing and they have not done enough talent-building. Those companies too are doing external hiring.“With technology, digitisation and analytics-based transformation gaining traction, none of the sectors will be untouched by it, especially the manufacturing sector,” said Madhu Srivastava, chief HR officer at the Vedanta Group.One of the biggest challenges in the current job market is the demand-supply mismatch in usable, practical skills. “More usable skills on the supply side will improve the employment situation,” says Satrupt Misra of the Aditya Birla group.According to the latest National Employability Report, released by the organization, Aspiring Minds, over 80% Indian engineers are unemployable for any job. Only 3.84% of engineers have technical, cognitive and language skills required for software related jobs in startups, and only 3% engineers have new-age technological skills in areas like AI, machine learning, data science and mobile development.Engineers employability for new-age jobs is on average just 1.7%.“There is a huge gap between skill sets needed and skill sets available even in traditional areas like construction,” says Hiranandani, adding that “we need to have a war like approach in skill development process.”“Sectors such as manufacturing, design, automotive, civil engineering, need specialized academies,” says R Suresh, founder of boutique search and consulting firm INSIST Executive Search.Search and hiring experts identify a few sectors with reasonably good job prospects in the next 12-18 months: KPOs, infrastructure, tourism, startups, hospitality, healthcare and life-sciences, renewable energy, project engineering, and most functions digital.These sectors contrast sharply with banking and financial services, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), telecom, auto and retail.KPOs are expected to hire about 1.5 lakh people over the next two years, according to estimates by Teamlease, as these companies sharpen their India focus.Nasscom estimates the market size of global in-house centres (GICs) increased to $28.3 billion in last financial year from $19.4 billion in 2014-15. The workforce of ‘installed’ GIC talent reached about a million in 2018-19 from in about 7.45 lakh over the same period.“While protectionism is increasing, certain sectors cannot do without migration to India,” says BN Thammaiah, managing director, Kelly Services, referring to the increasing focus of shared services units of global companies in India.The IT industry is estimated to add more than 1.7 lakh new jobs this year, almost same as a year ago, according to estimates by Nasscom, even as the conversation about automation continues.“New technology changes taking place, people are wanting to hire new talent to be able to train them, more investments by individuals are happening on up-skilling themselves…all of these are leading to an environment where jobs in the sector will continue to grow,” says Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice-president, Nasscom.A few are optimistic even about financial services. Motilal Oswal, chairman and managing director of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, feels that one big positive for the job market is that internationally there is a huge interest in India.“We are planning more hiring than what we budgeted last year,” Oswal says. “The government is making right kind of noises for employment and I see a pick-up in jobs. NBFCs are a concern, but banks, insurance and asset management companies (AMCs) are doing well.”Ecommerce companies are likely to add headcount as mature players such as Oyo, Swiggy and Zomato expand to newer territories. Cash-rich ‘soonicorns’ (soon-to-be-unicorns) may also hire more to drive growth. Hiring and search experts are optimistic about this sector.