Of the total 30,000 vacancies, 21,000 pertain to clerical posts, while 6,000 are for probationary officers, over 3,000 for specialists like -- technical officers for computers, law officers, CAs, Industrial Development officers, treasury officers and SME experts.

Public sector banks need to recruit specialists because of the challenge posed by the private sector banks, specially in marketing. The banks which have notified vacancies include the SBI, Dena Bank, Bank of Baroda, Andhra Bank, Union Bank of India, Reserve Bank of India and all the seven associate banks.

According to the United Forum of Bank Unions, it is a welcome step and it has further asked the banks to speed up their recruitment process as banks need to move faster in the next two to three years as there will be a significant number of retirements, the figure likely to touch around 70,000 in the next one and a half years.

There is another interesting feature. Coaching institutions are also conducting special courses for a steep price for careers in the finance sector.

According to O.P. Bhat, Chairman, SBI, there will be a qualitative shift in recruitment with more focus on specialists. It is not the numbers, but the talent and expertise that matter, he adds.

The average employee strength of Indian private sector banks has increased by 35 to 40 per cent. As per an Assocham study on workforce expansion in the banking sector, the employee cost of private banks has sharply gone up by 50 per cent, while public sector banks witnessed only a meagre rise of 2 per cent in their staff expenses during 2007-08.

A consistent increase in the workforce of private banks is a very positive development both in respect of employment generation and branch expansion, according to Sajjan Jindal, president of Assocham Association of Chamber of Commerce and Industries limited.