How campus hiring by IT, ITeS firms is down to its lowest in 20 years
The IT/ITeS sector, which is the biggest absorber of talent, usually hires 240,000 freshers every year from campuses. However, for FY24, this number dropped to 60,000, the lowest intake in two decades, and even lower than the Covid-19 year (FY21). From slowdown in the West to over-hiring in the past and increasing automation, the reasons are many, say experts.
Pasupathi Sankaran, COO of the AI-based recruitment platform HirePro, shares that in 2021, IT/ITeS companies hired in one quarter what they would normally hire in a year. Also, since the opportunities were many and attrition was high, they paid almost double the normal salaries to freshers. Hence, they are now sitting on a stockpile of talent hired at high packages, which is hurting the job market over the past two years.
IT/ITeS firms conduct the bulk of their hiring for roles such as software testing and junior analysts from these mid-level colleges.