Employment Probabilities and Salary Expectations of Engineering Graduates in India: An Empirical Study

The paper aims to analyze the employment and related aspects of engineering graduates in Delhi, India using the data collected from the final year engineering graduates studying in different types of institutions (central government/state government/private) and courses of study (traditional/IT related courses) in Delhi. The survey covers 1178 students in the academic year 2009-10. Different issues/questions dealt in the paper include: first, what are the factors determining the employment probabilities of engineering graduates? Second, does the offered earning of engineering graduates vary according to their socio-economic, academic and current educational background? Third, the crude rates of return to engineering education is estimated to evaluate labour market value of taking four years of engineering education in the instead of entering into the job market after completing senior secondary level of education. A few major policy implications are also drawn from the several results presented. Econometric tools used in the analysis include logistic regression (in case of the dependent variable is binary) and OLS technique (where the dependent variable is continuous). The explanatory variables included in the analyses are broadly categorised as individual characteristics, household factors and students' academic background.