Over 7,000 IIT graduates unplaced as job market copes with AI impact

Almost 7,000 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) students, including around 400 students from IIT Delhi, are still unplaced as the placement season for the academic year 2023–24 comes to an end.

According to a Times of India report, this data, which was obtained from responses to RTI queries submitted by IIT Kanpur alumnus Dheeraj Singh, shows the increasing difficulty graduates from all 23 IIT campuses have in finding work.

The institute has asked its alumni to help these students by offering jobs, making references, or offering internship possibilities.

"On behalf of the Office of Career Services (OCS) at IIT-Delhi, we appeal to you to consider extending a helping hand to our students," the requestadds.

The alumni of IIT Bombay and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) have also been contacted by these institutions for assistance.

Two months ago, BITS contacted its former students. About 250 applicants, or 10% of the graduating class at IIT Bombay, have not yet secured placements despite continuous attempts till the end of June.

BITS Group Vice-Chancellor V Ramgopal Rao blamed wider economic and technological issues for the drop in placements.

"Everywhere, placements are 20% to 30% lower. If some institute is saying all students have been placed, the quality of jobs leaves much to be desired," he remarked.

Rao said, "If two people can do the work of three people, we are already 30% down in hiring." in reference to ChatGPT and huge language models' effects on the labor market.

Dheeraj Singh's RTI data highlights that "over 7,000 IIT students are yet to be placed via campus placement this year across all the 23 IITs."

Singh said that two years ago, this unplaced figure was half that, at 3,400. In contrast to the twofold increase in unplaced students, the number of students taking part in placements has increased by 1.2 times.

(With inputs from agencies)