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Campus workforce trends

June 2025

Deloitte India’s Campus Workforce Trends Report 2025 provides a comprehensive analysis of the campus talent landscape in India, focusing on evolving hiring practices and employer recruitment policies. To capture a holistic view, Deloitte engages campuses and industries across India to simultaneously gather insights on recruitment trends and employer strategies through tailored questionnaires. Leveraging advanced analytical tools, the report highlights key findings, including Bangalore as the most preferred city for employment and IT as the top industry of choice, while shedding light on the current dynamics shaping campus placements and the future of talent acquisition.

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Key highlights: 

  • Compensation has steadily rebounded over the past five years with a 3.11 percent CAGR across all degrees, though MBA graduates have experienced the slowest growth at 1.62 percent.
  • PPO conversions have significantly increased across all degrees from FY24 to FY25, with an average rise of 24 percent.
  • Engineering degrees outperform management in year-on-year compensation growth, rising by 4.65 percent compared to 2.19 percent, with the highest compound growth seen in top engineering programs at 6.07 percent and lower-ranked management programs at 2.41 percent.
  • Manufacturing leads compensation growth, followed by consumer sectors, with life sciences/pharma showing the slowest increase.
  • Companies are adopting consistent pay structures, with variable pay now standard in campus hiring and 97 percent offering short-term incentives.
  • Retention bonuses are becoming a key strategy to keep campus hires through their critical first year and foster long-term loyalty.
  • More than 34 percent of organisations favour deferred cash plans over stock options for freshers’ long-term incentives due to their clarity and lower risk.
  • Students are expecting 4.6 percent higher compensation, driven by stronger demand for fresh talent, rising living costs, and increased awareness of market standards.
  • Longer placement cycles are helping students adjust their compensation expectations to better align with the market, reducing the gap between desired and realistic offers.
  • Compensation expectation gaps are closing by 67 percent in some fields while widening by 100 to 125 percent in others, indicating uneven shifts across different areas.
Conclusion

The evolving landscape of campus recruitment reflects diverse trends in compensation expectations, internship opportunities, and hiring practices across India. While some sectors show greater alignment between candidate expectations and market offerings, others experience increasing disparities, highlighting the complexity of the talent ecosystem. Drawing on extensive data from both educational institutions and employers, this report delivers critical insights to help organisations and campuses adapt their strategies and effectively engage the future workforce.

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Dr. Neelesh Gupta

Dr. Neelesh Gupta

Partner, Deloitte India

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