The public sector bank (PSB) is set to hire 10,300 employees before the end of March 2019. Retirements and digitisation has led to a reduction of around 15,762 employees at the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI). SBI reported a massive loss of Rs 7,718 crore in the January to March quarter of FY18. This is the second-highest loss witnessed in the banking sector, which saw its total staff strength decline to 2,64,041 as of March end 2018 from 2,79,803 at the beginning of the financial year. About 3,569 people had opted for VRS offered by parent bank SBI to all eligible employees of its five associates, which merged with SBI on April 1, 2017. A total of 18,973 employees retired, while 3,211 joined the bank between April 2017 and March 2018, according to SBI's investor presentation. This helped the bank save expenses on staff, which saw a decline of 2.34% in FY18 YoY. Overall, employee costs dropped to Rs 35,411 crore for the full year in FY18 from Rs 35,691 crore in FY17.