Final placements at the top B-schools this year could well signal ‘better times’ for the country’s job market in 2018.
IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) — both old and new — and other top B-schools, such as XLRI and IMT Ghaziabad, have reported a better placement season this year in terms of number of recruiters visiting the campus, offers made, and the average salary offered.
Industry experts say that though placements at top B-schools — including the IIMs — do not necessarily reflect the entire job market, they are certainly indicative of an improved environment.
Hiring, which had witnessed a lull across various sectors in December-January last year, has been showing signs of improvement, said V Suresh, Chief Sales Officer, Naukri.com. On a year-on-year basis, there has been a 10 per cent growth in hiring in December 2017, and a 14 per cent rise in January 2018 over the same period last year.
“The overall indication is that the first six months of this calendar year are likely to be better than the last six months of 2017. There is cautious optimism; we expect a slow and steady recovery. There could also be some correction before we start seeing a linear growth in hiring,” Suresh told BusinessLine .
Key sectors
The growth in hiring has been fuelled by sectors such as banking, insurance, auto, oil and gas, manufacturing, engineering and digital automation.
“Last year hiring in the banking and financial sectors was fairly low due to the impact of demonetisation. But now, with demo behind us and some amount of clarity emerging out of GST, companies are looking to hire,” said Neeti Sharma, Senior Vice-President, Learning Services, TeamLease.
Companies which had postponed their hiring plans last year, have come back to the market to recruit. This apart, a lot of new jobs are being created in the space of digital automation and marketing, she added.
The average pay package has increased by 10-12 per cent over last year, according to sources.
Hiring at B-schools
IIM Calcutta completed the final placement process for the 2018 batch in just over two days, with over 130 firms offering profiles across diverse sectors. A total of 481 offers were made this year, as compared to around 460 last year.
“We wrapped up the placement process earlier this year as compared to last year. There has been an improvement in terms of number of offers received, profiles offered, and the average pay package,” said Manju Jaiswall, Chairperson, Career Development and Placement, IIM-C.
XLRI, too, witnessed an increase in recruiters’ interest and a rise in average and median salaries.
“We were able to wrap up the process in three-and-a-half days (last year it took much longer), and we have seen a five per cent rise in the average salary, and a five to 10 per cent growth in the median this year,” Uday Damodaran, Chairperson, Placements, XLRI, said.
Clusters and cohorts
IIM Ahmedabad follows a cluster cohort placement process, wherein companies offering similar profiles are grouped into cohorts, and several cohorts are invited to the campus in a particular cluster.
Cluster 1 of the final placement process began on February 10 and Cluster 3 will be on February 16, post which the institute will follow a rolling process, if necessary, said a media statement issued by IIM-A.
IIM Shillong, which also follows a cohort system, began the process in October 2017, and is likely to wrap it up by the end of this week.
According to Sharad Nath Bhattacharya, Chairperson, Student Affairs, Placement and Public Relation Committee, IIM Shillong, going by the current trend, the institute is upbeat about placements this year.
IMT-Ghaziabad, which has placed more than 70 per cent of its batch so far, expects this to be ‘one of the best placement seasons’ for the institute.
“The highest domestic package was ₹25 lakh and by the time placements are complete, we only expect this number to increase. The highest international offer was ₹36.2 lakh . The average package is upwards of ₹11.5 lakh so far,” IMT said.