New Delhi: The economic slowdown being witnessed across the world has also come to affect recruitment even at the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
According to the Economic Times, the hiring at IITs – in the final placement week which began on December 1 – has declined by anywhere between 15% and 30% compared to previous years. Even after a week of the placement drive has passed, most students are yet to land a job, and the situation ahead looks bleak.
Authorities told the newspaper that even students from the Computer Science stream, who would have usually received multiple job offers, are struggling to get even a single offer. “Recruiters who used to hire 8-10 students are now taking 1-2 students each; some are coming to campus but leaving without recruiting,” a student at IIT-Kharagpur told ET.
The gloomy scenario is attributable to the slowdown being witnessed across multiple sectors, including tech, consulting, and other services sectors. Economic shifts, geopolitical economic worries, and recession fears have resulted in the slowdown globally. The current slowdown, which is being witnessed specifically in the information technology (IT) sector, is expected to drag on for the next two to three quarters, Sekhar Garisa, CEO of job portal Foundit (formerly Monster), had told Financial Express.
To tide over the situation in the IT sector, “non-tech sectors such as automobile, retail, and banking will be the saviours of India’s tech talent as the traditional haven IT sector reduces hiring significantly”, The Hindu Businessline had reported.
The situation is also concerning at older IITs of Delhi, Bombay, Kanpur, Madras, Kharagpur, Roorkee, Guwahati and Varanasi (BHU). Of the total 23 IITs in the country, the older IITs are more prestigious than others, and it is extremely competitive to secure a seat in one of these institutes. As they attract the crème de la crème of the student lot, recruiters vie with each other to provide job offers to these students.
“It’s a vicious cycle. Earlier when there was a rush, everyone used to compete to hire students. Now that there’s a slowdown, others are also questioning whether they need as many students as they had hired in the past,” another student told ET.
IIT-Kharagpur received 1,181 offers as of day seven of the placement drive; the number is significantly lower compared to the 1,300 offers the institute had received by the end of day five last year. Similarly, IIT-BHU has so far received 850 offers while it was 1,000 offers within four days of the placement drive last year.
