Data | Automation crushes bank hirings for clerical jobs, officers unaffected

ATM usage, mobile and online transactions, and fewer new bank branches have led to reduced recruitment

On Wednesday, Business Standard reported that the Union Finance Ministry had asked the heads of public sector banks (PSBs) for a plan to improve employee count. A week ago, BusinessLine had reported that vacancies announced for clerical posts had significantly decreased this year. The report also showed a declining interest in bank jobs, with increasingly fewer candidates registering for the recruitment/selection programmes. Earlier this year, on March 28-29, the All India Bank Employees’ Association carried out a strike insisting that the recruitment of workers be increased, among other demands.

The strike and the recent news reports together show that the problem of declining manpower has reached an inflection point. In fact, the cutback on hirings is more pronounced among clerks and sub-staff, while the number of officers has remained constant. This trend was observed in both PSBs and private sector banks (PVBs). However, it is worth noting that the number of officers in PVBs is three times higher than in the PSBs.

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Data show that increased ATM usage, surging online and mobile transactions, and a reduction in the number of new bank branches have reduced footfalls in banks and led to the rapid decline in the strength of clerical staff.

Chart 1A shows the total staff in PSBs and PVBs. It brings out the contrast in recruitment patterns. While the staff in PVBs went up from over 92,000 in FY05 to 5.7 lakh in FY21, the corresponding numbers for PSBs have remained stagnant — 7.48 lakh in FY05 and 7.83 lakh in FY21.

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Chart 1B shows the number of officers, clerks, and sub-staff working in each functioning office of a PSB. In FY06, each working office had 6.6 clerical staff on average, which more than halved to 3 in FY21. Similarly, the number of sub-staff per office reduced from 3.3 to 1.1 in the observed period.