The placement season at various campuses of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) started in December 2023. It is now garnering attention as the placement statistics paint a concerning picture for the students. The data provided by Dheeraj Singh, an IIT Kanpur alumnus and the founder of Global IIT Alumni Support Group, based on an RTI filed by him, reveals that placements may not be a smooth and fruitful process this year.
According to Singh, the IITs might record a higher number of unplaced students than in previous years. He has crunched these numbers from the RTI data that he received.
As per the statistics crunched by Singh, in IIT Bombay out of the total of 1,976 students who registered for placement opportunities this year, 712 students remain unplaced. His prediction reveals that approximately 35.6% of students might not get placed this year. Comparing these statistics to the previous year’s placement data reveals that approximately 33.4% of students could not find jobs during the placement season last year.
Likewise, at the IIT Delhi, Singh’s data has predicted that approximately 48.2% of the registered students can end up unplaced. The said institute registered 2,000 students for placement opportunities, out of which 964 students are yet to secure placements.
At the IIT Kanpur, approximately 31.2% of registered students might not get a placement this year. Out of 1,600 students who registered for placement services, 500 students remain unplaced. In 2023, out of the 1,660 students who registered for placements, approximately 23.6% could not be placed.
A similar placement scenario has been predicted for IIT Madras as approximately 45.2% of registered students can remain unplaced this year. Of the 2,100 students who registered for placement services, 950 have not received job offers. In 2023, out of the 2,323 students registered at IIT Madras, approximately 31.9% remained unplaced.
Singh has expressed concern over the predicted percentage of unplaced students at the IITs. He has emphasised the need for the institutes to support unplaced students in finding employment, especially considering the incidents of student suicides in recent years.
“This is a very disheartening state of affairs for the top young talents of our country. IITs should help unplaced students in finding a job. This is a serious matter considering a large number of IIT student suicides in the recent past, “ said Singh.
Singh further highlighted that the salaries offered by recruiting companies have substantially declined, with packages dropping from crore-plus figures to Rs 3-4 lakh per annum. “Clearly, our economy is not producing enough jobs for youth and we are heading towards greater unemployment and economic inequality which is a worrisome trend”, Singh said.
When The Free Press Journal reached out to IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, and IIT Kanpur, to get their reaction and confirmation on the predicted statistics, only IIT Delhi responded that this might not be the case this year.
However, providing clarification on the statistics of 2023, IIT Bombay took to X and posted a pie chart revealing that only 6.1% of students at the institute are looking for jobs. "Lately there has been news that over 30% of IITB students do not get jobs! An exit survey among graduating students in 2022-23 says only 6.1% are still looking for jobs. Here is the survey result for you to decide...", the post read.
(The Free Press Journal has not confirmed the data independently)
