Entry-Level Job Prospects Automation Heat

India’s IT sector could see a downturn in low skill jobs as automation technologies make big inroads. How will our engineering colleges tackle the situation?

- Bachan Thakur

The craze for self driving car is rising by the day and concepts like drone delivery of pizzas are gaining ground for end user convenience. Such technical advances backed by high level of automation are driving work processes across the globe. While the advent of automation has significantly enhanced efficiency, the implementation of automation technologies also gives rise to possibilities of job cut.

The march of IT companies as top recruiters continued in India till automation came knocking on the doors of the recruiters. Not only in the IT sector, but the automation techniques changed the HR framework of many other sectors including manufacturing, ecommerce, automobile, etc.

Sample this: Despite performing better on both topline and bottom line in 2015, many companies have reduced their manpower by curtailing new recruitments. As per industry estimates, IT giants like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Cognizant and HCL  together hired 24 percent fewer employees last year, owing to their automation drive.

Likewise, many leading manufacturing companies have also cut down their manpower at fresher level, raising only low demands for passing out graduates from engineering colleges.

Reflecting on the impact of automation processes on campus recruitments, Prof. Manu Santhanam, Advisor Training and Placements, IIT Madras says that the numbers have shrunk this year due to lesser requirement across industry sectors.

Reduced entry level jobs