 "Jobs, employment, hiring")
Just 10 per cent of the 1.5 million engineers graduating this financial year are expected to land a job as businesses battle with the global economic slump, and IT companies slash fresher hiring by 35-40 per cent compared to the previous financial year, reported the Times of India (ToI) citing a study.
Hiring of engineering graduates is likely to reach pre-pandemic levels, with 160,000 freshers expected to get hired as compared to 230,000 recruited in FY23, as employers gain the upper hand in the employment market, according to a report by tech staffing and solutions provider TeamLease Digital.
Companies today prefer mid-level professionals with seven to 12 years of experience over recruiting freshers, whom they would have to train for at least six months, TeamLease Digital business head Krishna Vij said.
In FY22, as businesses across sectors embarked on a digital transformation journey, fresher hiring had hit a peak of 400,000 and attrition levels had surged to over 30 per cent. The attrition rate has now dropped to an average of 16-18 per cent. Following significant layoffs by global behemoths earlier this year, the domestic talent pool has also experienced an influx of US-based techies.
Vij also said that there is a silver lining. "Demand is opening up in alternate sectors with global capability centres [GCCs], and non-tech sectors like BFSI [banking, financial services and insurance], media, retail and consumer business, life-sciences & healthcare, engineering R&D as well as energy expanding entry-level hiring," said Vij.
However, skill proficiency will be critical, as just around 45 per cent of the total engineering graduates this year fulfil market criteria, she said.
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"With evolving job dynamics, companies are looking for talent that comes with a combination of soft skills like communication, problem-solving, teamwork, emotional intelligence along with technical proficiency in programming languages, software development methodologies, cloud computing and data analytics," she added.
She further noted that freshers can improve their chances of getting hired by focusing on continuous learning and upskilling in areas such as data science, AI & machine learning, and cybersecurity.
