Bangalore: The current demand in the job market can be assessed by looking at the number of people vying for jobs at State Bank of India (SBI). Following an advertisement last month by SBI for 11,000 clerical posts, more than 36.11 lakh people have applied for the job, many of them being post-graduates or MBAs.

According to an official close to the development, the factors which are responsible for the response, is the recession and a freeze on recruitments in both the public and private sectors. "This was the first ad after a long time for recruitment to a nationalized bank, and therefore the deluge," the official said to The Economic Times.

By looking at such a high demand for its jobs, SBI now faces the dilemma of how to conduct exams for such a large number of candidates. "It has been proposed to hold the exams in three phases, on November 8, 15 and 22, in two shifts. This way we can test 12 lakh people every day. The final decision will be taken within a week," the official said.

The huge number of vacancies came into being on account of new branches being opened, the longtime freeze on new recruitments and retirement of existing employees. Incidentally, of the 36.11 lakh applications, more than half a million are from Maharashtra and of the 11,000 posts, 1,100 are reserved for the Maharashtra circle.