Surprise move: SBI embarks on mega recruitment drive

Here’s some good news for job aspirants. For the first time since the merger of its associates with itself last year, State Bank of India (SBI) is embarking on a mega recruitment of about 8,300 clerks.

These include 7,200 clerical cadre vacancies in customer support and sales roles, in addition to 1,101 backlog vacancies, according to a notification issued by the SBI last week.

“This is quite unexpected. With reports of excess staff after the merger and rationalisation, nobody in the job market expected SBI to come up with this recruitment now,” CS Vepa, Director, National School of Banking, told BusinessLine here on Tuesday.

A clerical job in the SBI comes with a monthly remuneration of ₹20,000-23,000, depending on the place of posting. It is open to graduates in any discipline. The exam has also been made tougher as the preliminary test, unlike earlier, will have sectional time limits for answering the questions. As the recruitment is state-wise and circle-based, a proficiency test for non-local candidates to ascertain knowledge of local language has also been made mandatory this year.

Following the merger of associates, SBI has been on a rationalisation drive. As on September 30, 2017, 1,344 branches/administrative offices were rationalised. This exercise is expected to bring in ₹1,150 crore in savings per annum.

The staff expenses came down to ₹7,703 crore from ₹8,300 crore in the same quarter last year.

During the first half of FY18, 798 employees joined while 11,382 retired. The total staff strength as on September 30, 2017, was 2,69,219 against 2,79,803 as on March 31, 2017. It remains to be seen if SBI will also come up with the much coveted recruitment of probationary officers in the days to come.