Hiring in India’s top 50 IT firms dip by 41%: Report

Hiring in India’s top 50 IT and BPM firms has declined by 41% overall and for senior management roles, it has dropped by 61% in September, according to the findings of a survey conducted by HR services company CIEL HR. 

The report titled: ‘Latest Employment Trends in IT & BPM Sector’, said that the sector has witnessed a slump this year due to margin pressures amidst fears of an economic downturn in global markets like the US and Europe. The global tech industry is also going through hiring freeze and layoffs. However, the report said that the IT industry in India is confident of rallying back to strength soon. 

“The demand for IT Talent which was at its peak during the first half of the year saw companies go into a hiring spree,” said Aditya Narayan Mishra – Managing Director and CEO, CIEL HR Services, adding that companies were ready to spend the extra buck to onboard resources with the right skill. 

“The hiring frenzy overlooked aspects like cultural fitment which created a disharmony as people have started coming back to office. So, some hard decisions are being made and contract resources have suffered the brunt of this,” Mishra said. 

“Beginning July 2020 and until the end of September 2022, the ten largest IT firms added nearly a third of their current workforce or half a million people,” according to an analysis by Mint, which said that Indian IT services companies are hitting the pause button when it comes to hiring as most of the companies, including Wipro, Tech Mahindra, L&T Technology Services, Cyient, Zensar and others, reported a sequential decline in the number of IT staff respectively, in the July-September period.  

On the job front, the study finds that Bengaluru remains the “hottest destination for IT & BPM talent”, with 28% of job postings for this region, which outstrips 14% for Delhi, 13% for Hyderabad and 12% for Pune. Out of the total job postings, foreign MNCs account for around 66% of the jobs while Indian MNCs account for 18% of the job postings. 

Another interesting find has been that the educational qualifications that employers are looking for in the sector. “An analysis of 46,876 jobs posted on job portal revealed 39% of job postings are looking for ‘Any Post Graduation’ degree, while 30% are settling for B.E/B.Tech and 7% for M.Tech,” said the study. While the requirement for an MBA degree is the least among IT & BPM companies with 5%, it said. 

Some of the jobs that are still in demand amidst the global headwinds, include software development “with 60% of job postings looking for this role”, the report said. The other popular choices include, quality assurance and testing, IT infrastructure services, IT support, IT consulting, data warehousing, and business intelligence and analytics.  

Besides, the tech sector’s contribution to active job openings in India dropped to less than 50% for the first time in 3 years in October 2022, even though the total job openings showed a slight increase as compared to the previous month, according to a report from staffing firm Xpheno, published in November, signifying an overall slowdown in hiring in the sector amid the global economic downturn. 

Job portal Monster.com also saw similar trends, noting that IT hiring went down by 19% on its platform in October. In a report published on October 9, the firm noted that overall hiring activity in India was down by 6% YoY in October 2022.