Hiring of engineering graduates is set to hit the pre-pandemic levels with 1.6 lakh freshers expected to get hired as compared to 2.3 lakh recruited in FY23, as employers gain the upper hand in the job market, a report by tech staffing and solutions provider TeamLease Digital showed.
Companies today are preferring mid-level employees with seven to 12 years of experience over hiring freshers, who they would have to train for at least six months, said TeamLease Digital business head Krishna Vij.
In FY22, as businesses across sectors embarked on a digital transformation journey, fresher hiring had hit a peak of 4 lakh and attrition levels had soared to over 30%. The attrition level has now tapered down to an average of 16-18%. The the domestic talent pool has also seen an influx of US-based techies following mass layoffs by global giants earlier this year has .
Vij said there is a silver lining too. “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.” However, skills proficiency will be the key as only about 45% of the total engineering graduates this year meet the industry requirements, Vij said.
“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 said that freshers can boost their chances of getting hired by focusing on continuous learning and upskilling on technologies such as data science, AI & machine learning and cybersecurity .