There are more employable women than men in India: Wheebox India Skills Report

• B Com, MBA and B Pharm graduates are found to be most employable, according to the Wheebox India Skills Report 2023 report.
  
• In 2023, most of the hiring is likely to happen in automotive, engineering and internet businesses.
  
• Percentage of the employable women workforce increased to 52.8%, compared to 47.2% for men.

The employability of Indians has gone up in the last one year according to The Wheebox India Skills Report. As per its evaluation, half of the candidates – at 50.3% were found to be employable as compared to the 46.2% last year.

This report is a result of the evaluation of 3.75 lakh candidates or freshers who took the Wheebox National Employability Test (WNET) across India and the participation of 150 corporations from over 15 different industries in the Early Career Edition of the India Hiring Intent Survey.

Piyush Nangru, co-founder and COO, Sunstone said the gap between skills that graduates have and industry-required skills continues to persist. “There is an urgent need across the country for multiple stakeholders to remedy the industry and higher education gap,” he said.

Amongst the domains, B Com, MBA and B Pharm graduates are found to be most employable. Whereas, Polytechnic and MCA graduates were the least employable.

“Improving employability through higher education remains a challenge and can be attributed to many factors.The post-Covid era further requires realignment of the higher education curriculum, up-skilling practices, and training techniques,” Nangru said.

Among cities, Mumbai has the highest overall employment percentage of candidates, followed by Lucknow and Mangalore.

The Wheebox India Skills Report 2023 was compiled by trade bodies, companies, educational institutions and more like – CII, AICTE, AIU, Sunstone, Pearson, AWS, Economic Times and Taggd.

Women more employable than men

It is interesting to note that the percentage of the employable women workforce stands at 52.8%, compared to 47.2% for men.

“The consistent rise in women’s employability over the past ten years is a positive sign of radical changes in India’s developing labour market. Increased participation of women at work will give industries an edge with key roles already being occupied by women as we go into 2023,” the report said.

Currently, the share of women in India’s workforce at 33% — is much less than that of males at 67%. Whereas, in countries like South America, Asia, and Africa, women account for 36% of the workforce.

Rajasthan has the most percentage of employable females who are prepared for the workforce (53.5%) while Uttar Pradesh stands second with 46.5%.

“If India aspires to become a global leader in providing skilled talent, then it is recommended that more policy-level changes are needed to increase workforce participation both in the private sector as well as the government sector,” the report added.

Sectors that will hire the most

This year, the demand for skilled labour was driven by the BFSI, pharmaceutical, e-commerce, and IT sectors. The report says that the hiring of freshers in these industries is projected to increase by 20% in 2023 compared to 2022.

As many as 36.08% of companies surveyed said that they intend to hire. The report predicts that, in 2023, sectors like automotive, engineering and internet business will see the most hiring.

Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Delhi are likely to have the most employable talent in 2023, as per its forecast.

According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy latest data, the unemployment rate of India rose to 8% in November this year.

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