IIT, NIT mechanical, civil, chemical engineering see sharp drop in placement rates

By Sheena Sachdeva & Aeshwarya Tiwari

NEW DELHI: Around 40% students from mechanical engineering, a popular branch of technical education, are yet to find jobs across top engineering institutes across the country. Data from mid-April, fetched through queries filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, highlights that across Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) students from the batch graduating in 2024 are still struggling to get jobs.

Even at the end of the final semester and exams already over, many institutes are still waiting for placement decisions from recruiters. The placement 2024 process began last year; at the older IITs, it started in December 2023. Careers360 received placement data from 10 IITs and NITs offering BTech in mechanical, civil, chemical, metallurgical and material, and mining engineering by May 2. None of the institutes have been able to provide 100% placements to students across any branch, including computer science engineering and electrical and electronic and communication. Data on these were analysed in previous stories for this series.

Unlike last year, when IIT Palakkad had placed 96.67% of its mechanical engineering graduates at an average salary of Rs 11.80 lakh annually, it had placed only 62.5% students from the department until April, 2024. The average salary package has remained stagnant. The lowest placement rate of mechanical engineering was at IIT Bhilai, with 38.46% of students placed with an average salary of Rs 9.64 lakh per annum. Even IIT Hyderabad, which has recorded better rates in CSE and ECE, has placed only 44.4% students but at the highest average salary package among the 10 institutes – Rs 21.98 lakh per annum.

As previously reported, campus placements in engineering has been a major struggle this year with many of the older IITs also failing to place students; NITs saw declining placements and salary packages.

“Branches like civil have received a lesser number of students sitting for placements and securing one, in comparison to last year. Until the companies keep coming and students are willing to join, we will continue with our placements. Though we don't expect the numbers to improve, we still expect in May and June an optimistic 5% increase in placements may happen overall," said Manoj Kumar Chopkar, faculty-incharge, placement cell, NIT Raipur.

"In comparison to last year, the market is down. However, core placement branches are doing well. Metallurgical and materials engineering has also done better. Even for branches like mining and other, many companies like Adani haven't hired this year as they haven't received environment clearance,” he added.

Mechanical Engineering Jobs: Placement 2024

IIT Hyderabad placements for 2024 has seen less than half of its mechanical engineering students by mid-April; last year, 74.90% students were placed overall.

Similarly, at IIT Jammu, overall 85% students were placed last year but in the 2023-24 placements, rates hovered at 70% in April. At IIT Bhilai and IIT Ropar, close to half the students to register for placements haven’t found jobs. Last year, IIT Ropar had placed 75% for mechanical engineering students with an overall salary package of Rs 20.99 lakh per annum.

At NIT Uttarakhand, 47.06% students have not landed a job, the highest percentage of the 10. The highest average package of this set was at NIT Raipur – Rs 9.93 lakh per annum.

Mechanical engineering placement 2024

B.Tech Civil Engineering Jobs: Placements 2024

Among the eight IITs and NITs who responded with data on civil engineering placements, the highest rate was found at NIT Durgapur and NIT Ropar with 53.52% and 50% students placed, respectively. The lowest was at NIT Uttarakhand.

Within this set of eight, IIT Hyderabad had the highest average salary of Rs 20.40 lakh per annum. Last year, IIT-H had placed 87.50% civil engineering students with an average salary of Rs 10.21 lakh per annum. IIT Jammu and IIT Palakkad followed in placement rates but both show decline from their own levels last year.

Similarly, NIT Raipur’s CE branch had a placement rate of 78.67% with an overall salary package of Rs 13.75 lakh per annum last year. Till April 2024, 70% students are still unplaced and the average salary has dropped to Rs 8.9 lakh per annum.

Civil engineering placement trends 2024

There are multiple issues impacting placements this year, explained IIT Raipur’s Manoj Kumar Chopkar. “This is the Covid-19 batch which started in 2020 and they are not at par with others. Further, a couple of students were not able to sit in the placement as companies demanded students with at least 65%-75% marks in Classes 10 and 12. Companies want students who have at least 65%-75% throughout. This number might be very low but a few have not been able to participate in the campus placements, impacting the overall numbers,” he said.

Chemical Engineering Jobs: Placements 2024

Six engineering colleges shared their placement rates for chemical engineering. NIT Raipur has the highest of this set – 74%. Last year, it had placed 81.08% chemical engineering graduates registered for placements. In placements 2024, NIT Raipur also had the highest average salary, Rs 21.52 lakh annually.

The placement rate crashed by over 40 percentage points at IIT Jammu which had placed only 44% chemical engineering graduates by mid-April, 2024; last year, it had placed 85%.

Chemical engineering placement trends 2024

BTech MME placements 2024

Metallurgical and materials engineering is offered at only a handful of these institutions. Of the four institutes that responded with the MME branch placement, the highest was at NIT Raipur and NIT Durgapur with 80.39% and 78.39%, respectively.

The only anomaly in this set, NIT Raipur’s placement rate for this branch has actually increased this year. Last year, it was 68.69%. The highest average salary was also at NIT Raipur, Rs 8.87 lakh per annum.

Among the IITs, IIT Kharagpur had a placement rate of 62% for MME branch till mid-April. IIT Ropar had 80% students placed last year but this year, till April 2024, the institute had placed only 38.89% students – another sharp decline of over 40 points.

Metallurgical and materials, mining engineering placements 2024

Biomedical engineering, mathematics

Less pervasive branches such as biomedical engineering and mathematics and computing have also seen placement rates decline.

Only NIT Raipur shared the placement rate in biomedical engineering – 14.3% with an average salary of Rs 12.12 lakh per annum. This was 32.76% in 2022-23. Even for biotechnology, the placement rate is 22.7% with an average salary of Rs 8.86 lakh per annum. In 2022-23, the placement rate for biotechnology was 34.69%.

IIT Ropar’s mathematics and computing branch saw a placement rate of 82.14% with the overall average cost-to-company (CTC) at Rs 22.92 lakh per annum.

Note: This is the third and final part of a series examining the latest placements in popular branches of engineering. The first was on computer science engineering and the second on electrical as well as electronics and communication engineering.