BENGALURU: The country’s fresher job market has bounced back in 2024 as the year saw significant fresher hiring across sectors.
Apna.co’s India at Work 2024 report reveals that there has been a 27% y-o-y growth in job applications and it crossed 2 crore in 2024. It said high-growth sectors such as IT, Mobility, Retail, BFSI, and Services are driving the demand.
While Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad contributed 60 lakh applications, regions like Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar added 82 lakh. Notably, 45% of the 37 lakh new fresher users on Apna came from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
As per the report, women contributed 2.8 crore job applications—20% higher than 2023—out of a total 7 crore. Tier 1 cities such as Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, and Mumbai led this surge with 1.52 crore applications, while Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities like Jaipur, Lucknow, and Bhopal contributed 1.28 crore. About 5,000 new women joined Apna every day in 2024.
Nirmit Parikh, CEO & founder, Apna, said, “The availability of tools like AI-driven hiring solutions adopted by 45% of SMBs and resume optimization features used by 77% of job seekers reflects a transformative shift in recruitment.”
Job postings on the platform surged by 20% YoY with over 12 lakh openings in 2024. Enterprise job market saw unprecedented growth in 2024, with job postings on Apna.co rising by 32%, surpassing 3.5 lakh across 100+ categories in over 500 cities. Experts also pointed out that the hiring landscape in the country is undergoing a transformative shift. Ankit Aggarwal, Founder and CEO of Unstop said companies are increasingly embracing skill-based hiring, recognising that 77% of Gen Zs prioritise roles or brands over stipends.