IT sector hiring down 43% in Oct; recovery likely in Jan-March: Study

Uncertainty about the global economy and the Ukraine war dragged down hiring in the information technology (IT) and business process management (BPM) sectors by 43 per cent in October compared to the average in January to September 2022, said a report on Friday.

Hiring for senior management was down 68 per cent in October compared to the same period, said CIEL HR Services, a mid-management recruitment firm. Data showed hiring is expected to pick up in the January-March quarter of 2023.

Overall hiring in October declined 4 per cent compared to September this year and for senior management roles it was down by 10 per cent. The report included data collected from top 50 IT and BPM companies that contribute to almost half of the sector’s employees.

“The reasons for the decline in hiring are global headwinds like the ongoing war, drying up of start-up capital and also due to the fact that a lot of companies are tightening the strings for IT. They are using money for absolute essentials, not investing money on future looking softwares,” said Aditya Narayan Mishra, managing director and chief executive officer, CIEL HR Services.

CIEL expected hiring activity increasing by around 15 per cent during the coming January to March period, compared to the average for October to December. “The recovery is expected to happen during the January to March period. The driving forces right now continue to be caution, but in the January to March period, it will shift towards cost optimisation, so India will score high from a cost optimisation perspective,” Mishra said.

The report comes at a time when many international technology companies have announced layoffs. Early in November, Facebook parent Meta announced laying off about 11,000 employees; Twitter made 3,700 job cuts after Elon Musk took charge of the company, and Microsoft announced it is letting go employees across multiple divisions in October.