Only 3% of India’s engineering graduates land quality tech jobs with packages over Rs 8 lakh: Survey

Majority of engineering graduates end up taking non-core jobs (Representational image)

Of an estimated 15 lakh engineers graduate in India every year, of which only 2.5 lakh students land relevant jobs in technical domains, claims the latest survey by Scaler – an edtech startup. In opposition to the perception, most of the engineers in India rather end up getting paid less than Rs 8 lakh. As per the survey, out of those roughly 2.2 lakh openings are in software, within which a vast majority (1.8 lakh jobs) are in IT services garnering around only Rs 3-5 lakh per annum in remuneration.

Report further suggest that of the available engineering jobs, only 40,000 jobs — for around 3 per cent of 15 lakh engineers get a mix of autonomy with packages upwards of Rs 8-10 lakh per annum for freshers. Additionally, of the 3 per cent of graduates who land coveted high-paying and quality jobs, the majority come from Tier 1 colleges — implying the lack of good quality opportunities for students from Tier 2 and Tier 3 colleges.

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One of the key issues is the lack of industry-ready skills. Further due to inequity in employment opportunities across institutions, around 12.5 lakh engineers almost every year who have to reroute options and pursue non-technical opportunities to stay afloat, states the report.

Also read | The rise and fall of the Indian engineering degree

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While the report suggests that lack of relevant skills is a key issue, it also highlights some key skills needed to be – data science, machine learning / AI, mobile development, full-stack development, and back-end development. A Coursera report had earlier claimed that business, technology, and data science skills are going to be more critical than others and the trend is common across the globe, especially after the pandemic. LinkedIn also claims that Indians are opting to upskill themselves during this pandemic. Time management: Working from home’ and ‘Six morning habits of high performers’ are the top picks of Indians on LinkedIn Learning