This is little compared to the 2.7 lakh employment generated by the tech industry in the preceding fiscal year.
The sharp decline in numbers coincides with demand pressure on the IT sector brought on by a downturn in the major global economies of the US and Europe.
More than 60–80% of the $250 billion services industry’s income comes from North American and European markets.
“We are seeing some level of correction happening, which is expected and needed for the industry,” stated Debjani Ghosh, president of Nasscom, “because there was a lot of over-hiring done during the COVID year.“
She went on to say that employment is shifting toward fields like cybersecurity, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), etc. “Therefore, we are witnessing an increase in demand for the frontier technologies.”
According to Nasscom, the sector spends 60–100 hours annually on upskilling per employee. The industry association provided an update on generative AI, stating that activity in this area had grown nine times year over year in 2023. The new technology is being trained for around 6.5 lakh personnel.
According to NLB Services’ year-end prognosis, there will be a surge in IT employment at the beginning of 2024, fueled by the expanding use of new technologies like big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.
In CY 2024, hiring in the IT sector is predicted to increase by 12–15% overall, mostly because of growth in the GCCs and a stabilizing global economy. There will be an 8–10% increase in hiring in the first quarter and 12–14% in the second and fourth quarters.
The research stated that IT companies are searching for specialists to take advantage of these prospects. The first several quarters of this year saw a decline in the IT industry due to the global crisis and changes in business synergy. As businesses saw a slowdown in projects, Q1 FY24 witnessed the biggest decline in IT staff in three years.
Nonetheless, major IT companies reported an average 3–10% growth in net profit in Q2 FY24 due to several factors, including increased technological investment, multi-year customer renewals, and new business wins.
Despite the early downturn, the following talents were in high demand: automotive design (14%), software development (28%), SAP (12%), and testing (12%).
Major firms laid off workers in a variety of areas; the technology industry was the most severely affected, closely followed by e-commerce, banking, and education. The global economic recession, continuous geopolitical tensions, rising prices, and a decline in investment within the startup ecosystem are some of the causes that contributed to the layoffs.
