NEW DELHI: Internet and e-commerce lead as attractive paymasters across levels, outshining energy, retail, FMCG and business consulting. Top executives – those with over 15 years experience – in the internet and e-commerce sector earned highest pay checks in 2024, with an average cost to company (CTC) of nearly Rs 37 lakh.
The burgeoning e-commerce market has been fuelled by an increased internet and smartphone usage, entry of small and medium-sized enterprises into this space, and availability of convenient alternate payment methods. The sector’s growth has created a huge demand for talent, which is attractively compensated at all levels.
The sector was closely followed by professional services and business consulting with an average CTC of Rs 36.5 lakh, and media and entertainment at Rs 35.1 lakh, a report by recruitment company Randstad India, shared exclusively with TOI, showed. As against this, in 2023, consultants had the highest average pay, beating AI specialists and marketing professionals.
“The Salary Report 2024-25 highlights a resilient and evolving Indian job market where niche skills are commanding premium compensation. As organisations navigate dual challenge of attracting and retaining top talent, the focus on upskilling has become a pivotal strategy for talent to unlock better salary prospects and career growth,” says Viswanath PS, MD & CEO, Randstad India
Further, BFSI, energy & utilities, infrastructure, real estate and construction continue to provide opportunities with attractive salaries across all levels, the findings say. These industries are crucial to India’s journey towards Viksit Bharat 2047. In the BFSI sector, investment banking and banking operations are in high demand, offering competitive salaries.
Meanwhile, in the energy and utilities sector, technical roles in engineering, transmission and distribution, and supply/production/space planning are highly sought after, commanding attractive compensation.
Among functions, healthcare jumps to the first position in senior and middle level salaries with average CTC of Rs 43.95 lakh and Rs 28.43 lakh, respectively. This mirrors the trend with the rise in job opportunities with competitive salaries, thanks to the integration of digital technologies and data analytics across research, drug discovery, diagnostics, and manufacturing, and a rise in medical tourism, government funding for healthcare infrastructure, and private equity and venture capital investments.
Across cities, tech-hub Bengaluru attracts highly skilled talent at all levels with the most attractive compensation packages. The report ranks Bengaluru as the number one talent hotspot across all levels in BFSI, manufacturing & automotive, retail, FMCG & FMCD (fast moving consumer durables), and IT sectors.
The junior and mid-level roles command an average CTC of Rs 7.2 lakh and Rs 19 lakh, respectively, while it ranks a close second in the senior level with an average CTC of Rs 36.5 lakh.
Mumbai is a powerful talent hub across BFSI, retail, FMCG and FMCD, and the energy and utilities sectors. It leads the tier-1 cities in salary table for senior level professionals with average CTC of Rs 38.8 lakh – and ranks second in the average CTC for middle level professionals (Rs 18.4 lakh).
At the senior level, Mumbai has seen an over 4% increase in average CTC from the previous year, and is about 12% higher than the national average. Among the tier-2 cities, Bhopal, Mysore and Kanpur make a powerful debut – taking the second, third and fourth spots in junior-level. Further, operations – technical rises to the first rank in junior level salaries (average CTC, Rs 8.1 lakh) and ranks among the top 5 functions in middle and the senior levels.