Techies in for a rough ride as IT sector gears up for tougher times

Just when the frenzy around the mass layoffs in the Indian IT sector seems to be slowly dying down, Nasscom has dealt another blow. The trade body has said that the industry will create 20-38 percent lesser jobs in the fiscal year 2018 compared to the last fiscal.

While the IT industry had created 1.8 lakh jobs last fiscal, it is likely to create about 1.3-1.5 lakh jobs in FY 2018. This number includes lateral as well as campus jobs. IT giants are known to be some of the biggest campus recruiters but this year the number is expected to go down. The sector added about 2.40 lakh jobs a year during the boom.

"Companies are trying multiple avenues, including campus selection, lateral hires, etc. But campus will be on the lower side as compared to earlier years," the Times of India quoted Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar as saying. He was speaking on the sidelines of an HR Summit in Chennai.

Chandrashekhar also spoke about the impact of automation on the industry during the event and said that while technology did lead to a few job losses, it also has created newer opportunities.

"Tech is eliminating jobs in every sector, including IT. It is also creating jobs. Countries like the US and UK have been adopters of technology and have experienced the same cycle. Today, their unemployment levels are close to zero. While there is job loss and pain, ultimately, it is the only route to economic prosperity," he explained.

Automation has been a much-discussed topic of late and often isn't seen in a positive light. With numerous companies embracing digital services these days, it is said to be one of the reasons that firms are hiring lesser manpower.

"With automation, the number of people we are hiring in the past will not be the same. It will slow down a little bit. We are also looking at hiring very differential kind of people," Indian Express had earlier quoted Krishnamurthy Shankar, executive vice-president, group head, human resource development, Infosys, as saying.

Pankaj Bansal, co-founder and chief executive officer of PeopleStrong, noted that the job cuts due to automation may not show a drastic impact right away, but it will be visible by around 2020.

The fact that the IT sector may witness some bleak days ahead was also predicted by Kotak Institutional Equities. It had said that the industry will have to deal with another tough year and "muted spending, the slow pace of deal closures, continuing captive shift, share and lack of much-anticipated kicker to financial services spending" would be the key factors behind the slowdown.