Tech companies may hire 50,000 less this fiscal

India’s information technology industry is expected to generate between 1.3-1.5 lakh new jobs this financial year, as it slowly deploys the excess number of engineers hired last year when business growth turned out to be less than expected. The hiring estimates by industry body Nasscom pales in comparison to the just completed year when the industry created 1.88 lakh new jobs.

India’s IT and BPO sector provides direct employment to 30 lakh people. “Business is not growing in a linear fashion as we move up the value chain,” said Nasscom president Som Mittal. “Even with 1.30 lakh new jobs, still we are the largest employer.”
The $108-billion export-driven sector, however, is expected to see better growth in the current financial year, according to industry body Nasscom, which has pegged the growth at about 12-14 per cent compared to just about 10 per cent last year. Some of the larger companies like InfosysBSE 1.30 % and Wipro grew slower at half the industry pace, and are burdened with large ‘benches’ – engineers who are not working on any revenue generating projects.
While Infosys delayed the absorption of graduates hired from campuses by up to nine months, others like HCL have faced protests by engineering graduates who were selected from campuses in late 2011 but are awaiting joining dates.
The nature of services delivered by Indian IT firms are evolving, requiring less number of engineers as automation of work becomes common place.