Lower-level employee hiring may slow for PSBs in FY25

Bankers and bank unions said that there is a need to add more jobs at the clerical level considering the increasing pressure at the branch level.

Hiring at lower levels in public sector banks (PSBs) is expected to slow down in 2024-25, some senior executives of PSBs and industry experts said.They attributed increasing digitalisation of basic functions for this shift, they said.

“We are investing in digital methods which have given us good results. Basic functions like query handling and collection at times have been successfully happening digitally. Maybe employee hiring for these roles does not happen aggressively,” a senior PSB executive said.

Another executive said that investing in digital products will increase. “Some functions are expected to stay offline but we are looking at growing our digital services,” the executive said.

Employee count in last few years

Data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed that the total number of employees in PSBs fell on a year-on-year basis. In 2013-14, the number stood at 8,59,692, falling to 7,56,644 in 2022-23.

On average, PSBs saw employee headcount falling by 15,000 to 20,000 every year.

The data also showed that the number of employees at the clerical level dropped in the last few years. For example, in 2013-14, the total number of clerks at PSBs dropped from 3,15,292to 2,57,771 in 2022-23. The total number of subordinate officers too fell, to 1,01,555 in 2022-23 from 1,56,218 in 2013-14.

Also read: Top private banks see highest attrition at junior level in FY23

Trend in private banks

On the other hand, employee strength in private sector banks doubled from 2013-14 to 2022-23. The total number of employees in these banks stood at 3,03,856 in 2013-14, jumping to 7,45,612 in 2022-23. However, the hiring has been at higher pay grades, with the total number of clerks in private lenders falling to 23,589 in 2022-23 from 68,031 10 years earlier.

Conversely, private banks in the last few months have also seen high attrition levels compared to their public sector peers, which were relatively insulated. Moneycontrol earlier reported that a number of private banks saw an average of 35-40 percent attrition at the junior employee level in 2022-23. In the last three fiscals, the overall attrition among the top private banks stood at the highest level in FY23.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on October 31, 2023, said attrition is seen to be high at some private sector banks and that the central bank is watching the issue "closely". Speaking at the annual BFSI Insight Summit organised by Business Standard, Das said the RBI is looking at the issue as part of its regulatory supervision measures.

Also read: RBI 'closely' watching high attrition at some private banks: Shaktikanta Das

Touching on some major banks reporting attrition rates of over 30 percent, Das said every bank has to build a core team to take care of such issues. He also said that the career outlook of youngsters has changed with regard to job switching and added that the youth is "thinking differently" on the aspect now

Bankers and bank unions said that there is a need to add more jobs at the clerical level considering the increasing pressure at the branch level.

“There is a need to increase more manpower in PSBs as they are catering to a large number of customers. On an average, an employee in a PSB handles 1,000-2,000 customers whereas the same with private banks is around 400-500,” said Rupam Roy, general secretary, All India Bank Officers' Confederation.