Engineers are more employable, than MBA students, finds survey

Source- businesstoday.in

The recently-released annual India Skill Report 2019 shows that engineers continue to be the most employable of the lot for the third-year running. The nationwide survey, prepared by People Strong, Wheebox and CII in partnership with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Association of Indian Universities, further revealed the waning employability of MBA students.

According to The Times of India, the latest survey showed that MBA courses have lost some of their appeal with employability dropping 3 percentage points over the last year.

In terms of cities, Guntur and Visakhapatnam reportedly entered the top 10 cities’ list after a gap of two years. The list also featured newcomers Thane and Nashik. “The presence of these tier 2 and tier 3 cities makes it clear that the employable talent pool is not limited to metro cities,” the daily quoted the report as saying.

The overall employability score has increased from 45% in the previous ranking to 47.8% in the latest one. Female employability, optimistically, showed a bigger jump to 46% in the latest survey against 38% in the previous one. What about salary expectations? According to the survey, almost 70% of freshers expect an annual Rs 2 lakh or more as their first salary and 47% of candidates expect Rs 2.6 lakh or above as their first paycheck.

The sixth edition of the report reached out to more than 3 lakh students across 29 states and 7 union territories from the supply side as well as corporate players from diverse industry sectors on the demand side. The survey captures the skill levels of students based on the Wheebox work, employability and skills test conducted between July 15 and October 30. The students were tested on several subjects, including English, critical thinking skill, numerical aptitude, domain knowledge and behavioural competence.

On the demand side, the survey optimistically reveals positive hiring intent. Nearly 64% of employers reportedly have a positive outlook on hiring. Moreover, it is expected to be 15% higher compared to last year across nine major sectors.

While most of the hiring would be for lateral positions, 15-20% of the new jobs would be for freshers. “Almost 40% to 50% of existing jobs which are transaction heavy would get automated. The key sectors are IT, financial services, manufacturing, transportation, packaging and shipping,” said the report.

Not surprisingly, artificial intelligence (AI), design analytics and research and development (R&D) are the top jobs in terms of hiring potential in the 2019 survey. About 23% of employers plan to hire for design jobs.