Time to move the placement calendar ?

The placement season on most engineering campuses begin in the month of June. By September the majority of the batch is placed. These students are expected to join their jobs in the month of June the following year. This essentially translates to companies having to forecast their man power requirements 9 to 12 months ahead.
The 2001 US Technology slowdown prompted quite a few software companies to defer their job offers (or sometimes even rescind). The US recovery that year was quick, and life was back to normal. The 2008 job scene may be a lot different. I expect more companies to rescind (or defer for longer than 6 months).

For the current batch, nothing much can be done. For the future batches, I hope they move their placement calendar to Mar-Jun i.e. the tail end of the eighth semester. This should hopefully mitigate the problem of deferred/rescinded jobs. If the jobs scene is bad, at least the students will get an early heads up and can then invite more companies for placement.