Slowdown blues hit CA students’ placements in tier I & II cities

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Mumbai: After management students, it’s now the turn of chartered accountancy students to face the economic downturn blues during their March-April placements.

The placements, which took place at tier I&II centres like Jaipur, Pune, Indore and Hyderabad, saw a drastic drop, both in the number of companies turning up for recruitments, as well as the salary packages being offered.

While last year, Jaipur saw around eight companies coming for recruitment, this year only two companies, Punj Lloyd and Bharati Axa Life Insurance, turned up for the process, recruiting only 6 of the 250 short-listed students.

Pune saw only three companies recruiting this year, compared to nine last year during the same time. The scene was equally dismal in Indore , which saw only one company recruiting, compared to 7 last year.

Salary packages also saw an immense drop. The average salary offered this year was around Rs 4.5 lakh, whereas last year, an average salary package of Rs 6 lakh was offered across all centres, while the highest package was around Rs 10 lakh for domestic and Rs 21 lakh for international placements.

Major recruiters like Nestle, Vodafone, ITC and Vedanta were also absent during the recruitment from various centres. Across smaller centres, only 67 students have been recruited from among 500 eligible CA students, who enlisted for placement. Last year, around 1,000 jobs were offered to a total of around 3,000 students availing the campus placement programme, of which 242 jobs were offered at the smaller centres.

“The salaries being offered have gone down, compared to the last few years. Since the job market is down, companies are also trying to negotiate on the salaries,” said a spokesperson from the Institute of Chartered

Accountants of India (ICAI), on conditions of anonymity.

“Moreover, the requirement of the companies has also gone down,” he added. However, another round of placements, scheduled for April 15 at major cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, and Delhi, stands as another ray of hope for the 4,000-odd candidates registered for campus placements.

“The situation at the smaller centres was really disappointing this year. Expected companies were more or less absent and the salary packages offered were not up to the expected level,” said Amrita Jain (name changed), a CA student. “However, we are banking on the placements, scheduled at major centres,” she added.