The pandemic slowed down economies. The lockdown and abrupt break in the demand-supply chains led to a massive upset in global businesses. Then, when Covid did show signs of abating, the world bounced backed with vengeance, Travel, investments, businesses and a whole “new normal” way of living, being and transacting came to the fore.
The “business of the IT industry” went through the same graph. Plunged to abysmal lows during the pandemic, it bounced back earlier than other ventures. Given that a virtual life was the real life going forward, tech giants and techies found a new lease of life. Aggressive hiring propelled higher employee costs and all was well till the cyclical business remained in motion.
However, seems the post-Covid phase is now on the wane and economists predict a recession in 2023. News has been awash with mass layoffs, the most recent being Amazon. And with appraisal season round the corner, IT employees are dreading the pink slip as companies struggle to stay afloat amidst competition and decreased returns.
Much of Gujarat’s IT business depends on jobs outsourced from European and North American markets. With these regions reeling under pre-recession effects, fresh orders have declined significantly in the last six months. Back-end firms in India which hired substantially post-Covid, are beginning to take tough decisions.
“It is true. We too have had to let go. We began with non-performing employees and let go of six each month, onwards July. To some extent, it helped us with meeting costs,” explained Callhippo executive, Ankit Dudhwewala. He added that replacements have been hired where necessary “but at 30% of the previous scale.”
Likewise shares Pranav Pandya, chairman, GESIA IT Association. As he puts it: “Weakened order volumes and servicing manpower costs have hit IT companies worldwide. Companies will be forced to think of numbers vis-à-vis scale of salaries.”
Also adversely hit are the campus hirings. With IT companies in Gujarat seemingly keen on re-aligning available skilled manpower, hiring newbies has been put on hold. “We hired many freshers in 2021 at competitive packages. However, this time around the focus is on keeping the count under control and on a very selective hiring,” clinches Gaurav Thaker, CEO, Ahmedabad-based Vedlogic Solutions.
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