The economy may have seen a sharp contraction so far this fiscal due to the pandemic, but demand for freshly minted Chartered Accountants for various roles in Indian industry are on a sharp rise, going by the data on the latest campus placement of the CA Institute.

At the first ever virtual Campus Placement organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) this month, jobs offered for newly qualified Chartered Accountants saw an increase of 37 per cent at 2,923 offers (2,135 offers). The average salary per annual offered also saw an increase to ₹8.91 lakh from ₹7.43 lakh in the campus placement conducted during last year.

The maximum salary offered to a newly qualified CA this year was ₹23.28 lakh per annum (for domestic posting) by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, sources said. Last year, the highest offer came from Power Finance Corporation at ₹24 lakh per annum for a domestic posting.

Some of the corporate biggies who recruited newly qualified CAs this year are PricewaterhouseCoopers, Infosys, TCS, Genpact, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank, sources said.

Campus placements

It may be recalled that the ICAI conducts campus placement programmes for its newly qualified CAs twice a year immediately after the results of its final examinations are declared. This time round it had to go in for virtual campus placement due to the pandemic-induced lockdown. No final examination was held in May 2020 due to the pandemic.

In the latest edition (August-September 2020) of campus recruitment, the major recruiters are from sectors like financial services, banking, IT, BPO and CA firms comprising of 80 per cent of total recruitments.

“It would be incorrect to say that Chartered Accountants’ demand accelerates only when economy is growing. In fact, their role is more important in prevailing circumstances. Companies are looking for sound professional advisors who can manage their finances and working capital well thus providing lifeline to other functions. CAs with their education and training are best managers and complete business solution providers,” said Atul Kumar Gupta, President, ICAI.

Career ascent

It is not only newly qualified CAs who are seeing demand surge, even experienced chartered accountants are in high demand.

In the “Career Ascent” programme for experienced CAs, held between September 22 and 28, the number of recruiters have doubled and vacancies have quadrupled to almost four times as compared to last year.

As against 14 recruiters last year, 29 recruiters had registered for this programme declaring 899 vacancies as against 226 vacancies last year, for CAs with experience between 1 and 20 years.

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