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50,000 techies may lose jobs in next six months

By SiliconIndia | Thursday, 25 December 2008, 21:02 Hrs | 14 Comments

50,000 techies may lose jobs in next six months

Bangalore: It is really tough time for employees in IT and BPO sectors in India as worsening economy may cause to lose over 50,000 jobs in these sectors over the next six months. Employees in Big and small firms are likely to be the most impacted section of the downturn in next six months, while it was employees in medium-sized companies met job losses largely during September-December period.

Karthik Shekhar, General Secretary, Union of IT Enabled Services (UNITES) India finds that there was a loss of 10,000 jobs in IT and BPO sectors during the September-December period. According to the UNITES India, companies in trouble could resort to salary and incentive cuts without trying to squeeze the staff, rather than adopting the layoff path.

Karthik further added that employees are willing to agree with cuts in their salary and other incentives for 12-16 months and when the demand picks up again such benefits should be restored to them. He said senior officials of the industry had concurred with the figure of 10,000 job losses in September-December, stating that it accounted for bottom 5 percent of the performers.

"Continued slowdown, likely tax application to companies outsourcing jobs under the new U.S. regime and tightening procedures with regard to H1B visas are among key reasons cited for acceleration in issue of pink slips," he opined.

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Reader's comments(14)

1: American software workers are no longer going to tolerate the job-destroying H1B visa, and all the high-tech worker shortage LIES that go with it!

Posted by:BAA - 03 Jan, 2009

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2: It is time we excercise prudence in spending. Let put off the parties and official celebrations that are lavish for a while. That can save us from reducing the work force. Earlier there were lot of nakhras from even Software engineers. Now it is payback time for these kinds of guys to fall in line. Traditional marketing technics should be done with. Innovative marketing with an eye on future trends need to be adopted to keep the oven hot.

Posted by:MV Rao - 29 Dec, 2008

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3: Its better to work for a company with less salary rather than quiting the job...
instead of loseing the employee's the company should reduce the expenses ....and save the job cuts

Posted by:sandeep - 29 Dec, 2008

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4: Fully agree with SLNSIMHA... that's the spirit of we indians... we can acoomodate in any situation...

Posted by:deepak - 28 Dec, 2008

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5: i wud suggest on lower packages and reduced facilities rather than taking away the means of living

Posted by:Rahul Nair - 27 Dec, 2008

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6: its better to work for a company with less salary rather than quiting the job...instead of loseing the employee's the can reduce the expenses like cab, food, travelling etc...

Posted by:rajesh - 27 Dec, 2008

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7: Why should a company send people out when there is recession, cut the facilities like CAB pickup, as these guys to come by Public Transport e.g. Bus, give normal food,
like, cut all perks, avoid Travel by flights, use e-mail, phone for communication, avoid business meetings in costly environments live simple and work better that is the solution for recession. US People may not adopt, but we Indians are ready to suit any situations.

Posted by:SLNSIMHA - 26 Dec, 2008

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8: BPO and Contact centers, not really understand why there is so much of recession pressure, however i feel sales and Tech jobs might be bit safe, any body in support functions,non customer facing,backend HR dept can get hit.

Posted by:Daniel Raj - 26 Dec, 2008

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9: I can only suggest to my IT guys, just hope for the best and do ur best for the company.

Posted by:sonu - 26 Dec, 2008

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10: IT IS NOT PROPER TO CREATE UNEMPLOYMENTS TO THE IT AND BPO SECTORS EMPLYEES BY TERMINATING THEIR JOBS . I PRESUME IT IS THE TIME TO REDUCE THE SALARY PACKAGES FOR THE EXISTING EMPLPYESS AND SEARCH FOR NEW AVENUES TO BUILD UP CONTRACT WORK WITH OTHER COUNTRUES LIKE UK WHOA STILL NOT ON RECESSION. THE ECONOMY WIL STILL BASED ON THE WORK PRODUCTION AND NEED TO DEVELOP WITH COUNTRY LIKE INDIA.

Posted by:P.R.MALLESWARA RAO - 26 Dec, 2008

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11: Rightly said: the employees will be happier to sacrifice their incentives and part of salary than to search for a new job and prove your mettle all over again in this slowdown environ and also be a consistent at it there. It will a double challenge in the new job, isn't it?

Posted by:Sandeep - 25 Dec, 2008

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12: fifty thousand is a very conservative figure. GM, Chrysler (imminent) collapse alone will lead to more than twenty thousand offshore engineers jobless. Specifically these two giants are the first and ninth largest customer for a major offshore IT provider.

What India need to do is to open up to embrace IT in government organizations like RTOs which will help in making people life easier.

Posted by:suresh - 25 Dec, 2008

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13: The way things look currently it won't be a big surprise if that happens. So lets hope for the best and be prepared for the worst.

Posted by:Ruchi Asthana - 25 Dec, 2008

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14: well everyday we are losing tonnes of jobs.. so this is another chunk of the pink slip scene..

Posted by:maria - 25 Dec, 2008

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