The country top engineering talent is also now facing an unprecedented job placement crisis.
Unemployment Woes in India’s Engineering Pinnacle
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) which has long been considered the pinnacle of engineering education in India is now grappling with this crisis.
As per the RTI applications filed by the IIT Kanpur alumnus Dheeraj Singh, data revealed that approximately 8,000 (38%) of IITians across 23 campuses remain unplaced this year.
Out of 21,500 of those students who registered for placements in 2024, only 13,410 secured jobs. The same number 2 years ago was 19% as opposed to now 38%.
What is stark is that it is the older nine IITs that are particularly affected, with 16,400 students registering for placements this year, of which 6,050 (37%) are yet to find jobs.
The new ones are impacted further, with 2,040 (40%) of 5,100 registered students unplaced.
Speaking about the lukewarm placement season, Dheeraj Singh, a consultant and IIT Kanpur alumnus, shared on his LinkedIn. “33% of students in IIT Kharagpur did not find jobs via placements last year. Unplaced students are dealing with stress, anxiety, and hopelessness due to poor job placement scenarios”.
Unprecedented Job Crisis in India’s Premier Engineering Institutes
Speaking about the placement scenario of IIT Delhi, he said that “As per the RTI reply, 600 students were unplaced in IIT Delhi in the last two years”.
As per the data, from 2022 to 2024, the number of registered students at the older nine IITs increased by 1.2 times, whereas those who went unplaced rose by 2.1 times.
The number is worse in the 14 new IITs, with registered student numbers grew by 1.3 times, but the number of unplaced students surged by 3.8 times.
This impacts the overall mental health of the students, and as per data, total of 6 IIT students have died by suicide this year, underscoring the severe stress and anxiety faced by many.
Mr Singh highlighted “The doubling of unplaced student’s points to a precarious state of affairs in the best engineering colleges of the country. Around 61% of the postgraduates are still unplaced. This is an unprecedented job crisis our premier colleges and our young graduates are facing”.
As nation’s top engineering colleges deal with these unprecedented and turbulent times, the job placement scenario remains a critical issue that demands urgent attention and solutions.
