Bangalore: Vishal Dubey (name changed) is delighted at his luck. An oracle database expert, he has just landed a job at Accenture for double the salary he was getting from Wipro, where he was working as a contract employee. Only six months ago, Vishal like many other IT sector employees couldn't have dreamt of such a situation. At that time, due to the global economic downturn, he had no choice but to patiently wait, even as his employer cut all his benefits and acted pricey. But now, the tables have turned. Employees are once again in demand, and to top that, companies are poaching the experienced and specialized professionals from their rival firms by offering a 100 percent hike. For instance, Vishal was being offered around 6 lakh per annum, as a contract employee working for Wipro. Although he was offered a hike of around 40 percent by Wipro, he still left the firm as he was offered a 100 percent hike at its rival, Accenture. With the economy reviving, companies are willing to pay double the salary as they compete to hire the best. At this point it might seem like Accenture has scored a point over Wipro. But, while Accenture may have gained with this hiring, the truth remains that the attrition rate at this firm is also very high. According to a top official at Accenture who wished to remain anonymous, the firm recently standardized the salaries of all its employees, over which it is offering a 40 percent hike. Yet the IT firm is losing its employees, as other IT biggies offer a 100 percent hike. The 'Hiring Outlook' survey conducted by job portal Naukri.com among over 800 recruiters, revealed that over 70 percent recruiters in IT, ITeS, auto, telecom, banking and pharma predicted robust hiring in 2010, while 82 percent recruiters said that professionals with one to eight years experience would be in demand. But this hike is not for all. It is especially being offered to mid level executives with around three to six years experience, in demand for their specialized skill sets like Java, Dot Net and Oracle Database. According to Tuhin Chatterjee, a former Project Manager at Satyam Computers, while there are enough engineers with such specialized skills, not all are employable. Neelabh Shukla, who manages the mid level hiring at CareerNet Consulting agrees. "What is lacking in these 'could be potential employees' is the conceptual clarity. So although they may have done a course in Java, companies prefer to go for experienced professionals, as they are looking to build a matured workforce," says Shukla. In fact, with U.S. firms continuing to outsource most of their work, it is the Java programmers who are in top demand. Another reason for the hikes being offered is that, most employees did not receive their appraisals last year due to recession. Now that the demand supply equation is changing, employees feel more comfortable in demanding a double digit hike, says Shukla. Employees also prefer to opt for lateral hiring instead of a contract based hiring. While contract based hiring was never a very popular trend in India, companies during recession mainly benefited through this mode of hiring. But now that the employment situation is reversing, it is the turn of the employees to act pricey.