Entry Level IT Jobs May Face Setback This Year Anticipated 50 Percebt Drop in Campus Placements

In January this year, 85 students of IIT Bombay reportedly received job offers of Rs 1 crore per annum. But by the end of the second session of placement, a new report came out, in which it was told that 36 percent of the students of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay did not get any job. This figure was out of the total number of students who had registered for placements, but there is no doubt that the number was larger. Now, a latest report suggests that India’s IT job market has seen a steady decline in entry-level jobs over the past few years and is expected to decline further this year. At the same time, there is reportedly going to be a decline in campus placements too.

One with ET Now Interview Ramani Dathi, CFO, TeamLease Services, talked about the current scenario of the IT job market and said that this year will also be a special one for Indian job seekers after the IT sector has seen a steady decline in entry-level jobs over the past few years. Not going to go well. He says that this year is likely to see a greater decline than before. Not only this, he also says that campus placements may also see a decline this year. Dathi said campus hiring was relatively low last year too, but since the cost of entry-level jobs in IT is really low, companies went ahead with entry-level hiring and spent on L&D and upskilling.

In his interview he said, “It was working for the last year. But this year, campus recruitments even at the entry-level will be less compared to the trends of the last two years. Whether it will be 50% less, 60% less. “We cannot say very definitively and clearly, at least according to indications, there may also be a decline in campus recruitment numbers this year.”

Dathi emphasized on the shift towards advanced skill sets like AI and ML, necessitating upskilling initiatives. Despite ongoing uncertainties, opportunities remain in the Global Development Centers, albeit at a slower pace. Proactive upskilling remains important to navigate the evolving IT job landscape.

Dathi highlighted the ongoing challenges in the IT sector with a consistent decline in headcount in service companies over the last five quarters. Although February and March saw a slight increase in hiring, significant improvement is not yet evident.