New Delhi: If you are looking for a technology job, this may not be the best of times. Fewer information technology (IT) companies are looking to hire in the next six months, results of a survey showed.
Only 50% of Indian IT companies plan to hire in the October 2017-March 2018 period, a sharp 8 percentage point drop from 58% in the April-September half-year period, according to Experis IT Employment Outlook Survey findings released on Tuesday.
The survey of 500 companies, conducted by Experis IT, a 100% subsidiary of staffing company ManpowerGroup, revealed that hiring intentions have dropped in almost all categories. At least 57% of respondents said they plan, instead, to train existing staff on niche, sought-after technology skills.
“The Indian IT employers expect layoffs and a shrinking job market in the next 2 quarters. Majority of the IT employers would want to hire trained IT graduates. Upskilling employees are the new plan of action for employers,” the report said.
Hiring will be concentrated in captive centres in India, “ruled by on-demand hiring”. Hiring intentions have drastically gone down in IT services companies too, from 22% in the previous half-year period to 9% in the October-March period.
Mint on 19 April reported that companies are looking at non-linear values that captives or global in-house centres (GICs) can add to the business—new things that Indian GICs can produce—and support the parent organization.
Industry body Nasscom earlier told Mint that on an average, GICs add 50,000 to 70,000 people in India every year and due to the volume requirements, this number is expected to go up.
Cloud computing and SaaS (Software as a service) skills will lead the hiring demand, followed by big data analytics. Candidates with zero to 10 years of work experience will lead demand, with strongest labour market forecast in the southern region, the survey said.
A rise in new enabling technologies, such as SaaS offerings, cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, artificial intelligence’s (AI) unprecedented speed, accuracy and cost efficiency is critical to maintain the competitive edge which are driving the businesses now, said Manmeet Singh, president at Experis, ManpowerGroup India.
“With this ongoing transformation, these technologies bring underlying technical complexity which spurs the demand for young professionals resulting in talent refresh cycle in the Indian IT industry that would continue for the next two years,” Singh said.
However, employers will continue to hire, but cautiously.
“Staying ahead of the technological curve has become a new survival norm in the digital world where upskilling is the key. The IT sector will continue to hire for newer skills in the areas of automation and artificial intelligence,” said A.G. Rao, group managing director, ManpowerGroup India.