Deloitte Report 2025: Skill-First Strategy Surges in Campus Hiring
Deloitte India’s Campus Workforce Trends Report 2025 signals a strong rebound in campus hiring, with companies increasing their hiring budgets by 15% and offering an average 3.91% salary hike to future-ready graduates.
The report, based on data from over 500 campuses and 200+ organizations, highlights a strategic pivot toward skill-first hiring, AI-enhanced screening, and long-term retention.
This marks a departure from traditional credential-based recruitment, as employers recalibrate their approach to engage and retain young talent in a tech-forward, purpose-driven environment.
Skills Over Degrees: The New Hiring Mantra
Employers are increasingly prioritizing skills over academic pedigree, with AI, robotics, cybersecurity, and social selling emerging as top-paying domains.
Key trends include:
- 24% rise in Pre-Placement Offers (PPOs) across disciplines
- 87% of engineering students actively pursuing upskilling
- Deferred cash plans preferred over stock options for long-term incentives
- Retention bonuses used to anchor fresh talent through the first year
Internships are being redesigned to include behavioral assessments, learning agility, and digital DNA, helping reduce campus attrition by 300 basis points in FY25.
Deloitte Campus Workforce Trends 2025: Sectoral and Role Preferences
The technology sector remains the top choice for graduates, followed by financial services, consumer products, and manufacturing.
Popular roles include:
- MBA graduates: Management Consultant, Product Manager
- Engineering graduates: Software Development Engineer, Data Scientist
- CA graduates: Audit Manager, Management Accountant
Compensation growth is strongest in manufacturing and consumer sectors, while life sciences/pharma lag behind.
Engineering degrees saw a 4.65% YoY growth, outpacing management degrees at 2.19%.
Location Trends and Internship Disparities
Bengaluru continues to be the most preferred work location, followed by Hyderabad, which overtook Delhi NCR in 2025.
While Tier I and II campuses saw increased internship opportunities, Tier III institutions experienced a 3% decline, highlighting persistent disparities in access.
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