IT sector jobs fell 7% in January this year: Report

IT sector jobs witnessed a 7% month-on-month dip in January 2023, according to a report published on Wednesday by hiring firm Foundit, which added that the sector fell 22%  between January 2022 and January 2023. According to the report, the Indian IT sector faces a lull due to global macro conditions, seasonal IT hiring slowdowns and course correction from last year’s hiring surge. 

According to Foundit Insights Tracker’s monthly job report for January 2023. Hiring activity in the Indian white-collar space recorded a slight dip of 2% month-on-month. Besides IT, which includes both hardware and software, jobs in the healthcare sector also saw a 7% dip in January. This was followed by telecom and banking and financial services insurance (BFSI) sectors that saw a dip of 5% and 3% respectively in January this year. Further tech-related hardware and software jobs in finance, healthcare and marketing also tumbled by 3-5% in January, said the report.  

Foundit isn’t the only firm that noted a downward job trend in the IT industry. According to hiring firm Xpheno’s Active Jobs Outlook Report for January 2023, while India had over 2.73 lakh tech jobs in January last year, the same fell by 59% y-o-y to 1.12 lakh, last month. Moreover, the tech sector’s contribution to overall active jobs hit as low as 40% from the highs of 84% a year ago.  

The last three months of the year from October-December saw a decline of 47%, 48% and 46% respectively. However the curve has dipped again in January with the sector putting out 112,000 active jobs, as compared to 124,000 in December 2022, it said. Anil Ethanur, Co-founder, Xpheno, told TechCircle that the local hiring patterns of the IT sector have also been sensitive to the layoff trends over the last quarter. “The gradual drop in hiring demand in the Indian Tech Sector has been largely correctional, but currently entering a phase of negative impact if further sustained,” he said.  

Further, staffing firm Naukri.com, in a February 2 report, also noted a 25% decline in India’s IT sector hiring in January 2023. The recruiter’s monthly Index, called JobSpeak, showed a 2% growth in overall hiring activities in January 2023 compared to the same time last year. 

The monthly report, however, said that despite trying times in the global economy, some industries such as retail, travel and tourism, advertising and public relations, and agro have exhibited continuous growth, with the report reflecting a 6% growth in job posting activity over the last three months. 

The report also noted that Indian IT, which held the highest share of remote jobs on Foundit (74% in 2022) also saw a drop in remote and hybrid jobs to 58% in January 2023. Notably, the industry still contributed to over half of the total number of remote (23% share) and hybrid (35% share) jobs on the platform, it said.  

Sekhar Garisa, chief executive officer at foundit (previously Monster APAC & ME), said that “upskilling measures in niche areas like coding, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, mechatronics, and Internet of Things (IoT) will enable a pool of opportunities in the upcoming months allowing for expansive adoption of tech across all sectors.”