20 lakh new jobs in banking in ten years

The hiring trends may get a further boost from the public sector banks, as many of them would need to hire fresh talent in the wake of nearly half of their workforce scheduled to retire in the next few years.

According to HR services major Randstad India, banking sector will generate 7-10 lakh jobs in the coming decade and the sector would be among top job creators in 2014.

Estimates are, however, much higher for Manipal Academy of Banking, which expects expansion in banking sector, including by the existing and new banks, to help create 18-20 lakh new employees over the next five years itself.

Besides direct hiring, expansion in banking sector also helps in huge job creation in various support areas, experts say.

According to Randstad, public sector banks could account for a bulk of hiring and could see 5-7 lakh new jobs being created in the coming years, as close to 50 per cent of their workforce in the lower and middle-level functions will retire in this period.

"With the new banking licences, which are likely to be issued in the first half of 2014, the banking sector is poised to create big career opportunities in the near future," Randstad India & Sri Lanka CEO Moorthy K Uppaluri said.

Enthused further by the government's financial inclusion plans to expand banking to rural areas, Uppaluri said, "With only less than 30 per cent of the Indian population having access to bank accounts, top banking firms are looking to expand and venture into the untapped rural markets that have so much potential to boost growth and profitability".

Reflecting similar views, talent assessment company MeritTrac Services' CEO Vasu K Saksena said that "hiring in banks is likely to increase in the next couple of years" owing to expansion of banks into new cities and rural locations.

"Along with new banking licenses, the reason can also be attributed to the large numbers of retirements that banks will witness during this year and the next," Saksena added.

According to Manipal Academy for Banking, about 4 lakh people applied for jobs in public and private sector banks last year. Of these while public sector banks hired 60,000-70,000 candidates, private sector hired another 40,000 job aspirants.

Looking at the recent trends, experts are of the opinion that hiring in the sector is expected to happen across regions with lower tier cities to be one of the biggest beneficiaries.

"With new banks being set up in Tier 2, 3 and 4 cities, there will be growing demand for business correspondents, sales executives and other banking professionals to reach out to the rural population," Uppaluri said.

"In the months to come, we expect to see higher hiring momentum in tier 2 and 3 cities to begin with," he added.

"Clearly, Tier 2,3 and 4 cities would be the biggest beneficiaries as most of the existing banks are looking to expand into these cities," Manipal Academy of Banking Director C S Thammaiah said.

"Most of our partner banks have seen per employee productivity going up and attrition coming down through a conscious effort of hiring from tier 3 and 4 towns," Thammaiah noted.