Job Market Scenario In India

Job Market is a virtual place where employers search for employees and employees search for jobs. Job market is a concept that demonstrates the competition and interplay between different labor forces. The job market can grow or shrink depending on the labor demand and supply within the overall economy, specific industries, for specific education levels or specific job functions. The job market is directly related to the unemployment rate. The higher the unemployment rate, the greater the supply of labor in the overall job market. When employers have a larger pool of applicants to choose from, they can be pickier or force down wages. As the unemployment rate drops, employers are forced to compete more heavily for available workers, which has the effect of increasing wages.

In Indian job market, Software development, sales, business management and marketing related jobs are currently the most desirable ones, says a report. According to employability assessment firm Aspiring Minds’ Skill Map; software developer role has the highest demand of 9.74 per cent, followed by sales profile at 8.17 per cent and customer service roles at 6.53 per cent. The report that scanned over 10 lakh jobs across India and mapped the jobs and skills in demand noted that English comprehension and reasoning skills have the highest demand among employers. On ranking states on the basis of available open positions, Maharashtra bagged the top position with 19.72 per cent of total open positions in India, followed by Delhi NCR at 16.99 per cent and Karnataka at 16.03 per cent.

However, there are certain factors that are leading to more lay-offs in India than in around the world. These are:

• Technology Disruption: Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and automation are taking away the low-skilled jobs. The new generation is not up to the mark with new trends in technology.
• Over-dependency on Service-Based Projects: The Indian IT sector has been relying too much on the service-based revenue model. Not many companies went for creating innovative products.
• Shortage of Talent & Skills: Producing 1.5 million engineering graduates every year is of no use if they lack the basic employability skills. The recent study by Aspiring Minds, an employability assessment company, says that 95% of IT and software engineering graduates in India are unemployable. The study found that only 4.77% graduates can write the correct programming codes, and only 1.4% can write code that is functional and efficient. More than 60% of students cannot even write a compliant code. As per the reports, 60-65% of the Indian IT workforce is not even trainable. The students struggle with both technical and soft skills. Hence, one of the core problems lies within the education system in India.

The most spontaneous industry “Information Technology” is crashing in India. The IT job market in India is seemingly crashing. There are reports that the information technology firms in India are in the middle of one of the largest job cuts ever seen in this Industry. Nearly 2 lakh jobs are at stake, with big-ticket companies looking to both hand over pink slips to incumbent employees and hire fewer talents. The number of layoffs this year is set to be twice that of last year, with inability to adapt to new technologies, inadequate growth, rise in costs (and subsequent fall in profits) and the use of automation tools which reduce the number of employees needed the main reasons behind the same. Seven of the biggest IT firms in the country are in the process of layoff. More than 56,000 engineers are at stake. This number is only set to grow as companies have been unable to deal with newly elected US President Donald Trump’s nationalist-protectionist policies. As a result of Trump’s new policies, many IT companies are in the process of hiring US citizens and asking Indian H-1B Visa holders to return back to India.

1. Cognizant (American based IT service provider) seems to be the worst hit as the company is planning on cutting off as many as 6,000 jobs – representing a whopping 2.3 per cent of its total workforce. The company is reportedly struggling with adapting to new technologies and digital services and is dismissing employees in lower-end jobs which are becoming redundant because of automation. Cognizant has also reportedly placed close to 15,000 employees in the lowest category – Bucket 4. That is, they have put them on notice by giving them the lowest ratings possible.
2. Software services company Tech Mahindra, which ranks fifth amongst Indian IT firms on the basis of revenue, has also reportedly let go of more than a thousand employees A Tech Mahindra spokesperson said. – “We have a process of weeding out bottom performers every year and this year is no different”.
3. In the middle of Flipkart acquisition rumors, the struggling e-commerce player is reportedly planning to cut a huge 30 per cent of its workforce as a result of poor growth, reduced revenue and incurring losses. More than 1,000 employees are expected to be affected by this decision.
4. Reports claim that Indian IT colossus Infosys is planning to lay-off as many as 1,000 employees in the coming months. The employees in question are said to be those working as project managers, senior architects and in other high level-positions. In fact, Infosys has already started dismissing employees. This IT giant asked 500 plus employees to leave on the ground of ‘non performance’. In a bid to warn employees, Infosys has also reportedly placed more than 3,000 senior managers in the ’employees needing improvement’ category.
5. DXC technology (Global IT services and solutions leader) is also in the midst of a three-year plan to reduce overheads and cut the fat. The company is planning to reduce the number of offices in the country from 50 to 26 and is also planning to lay-off 10,000 of its 170,000 strong work-force.
6. Cutthroat competition and Jio’s disruptive pricing policy has impacted almost all of the telecom operators in the country badly. The struggling telecom operator Aircel reportedly fired 700 employees in February, which account for more than 10 per cent of its Indian workforce.
7. Wipro has also reportedly started the process of making the organization leaner and more decentralized by reducing unwanted and excess managers and executives. A Wipro spokesperson reportedly said: “Performance appraisal may also lead to the separation of some employees from the company and these numbers vary from year to year”. Wipro is planning to trim the fat by removing unnecessary layers such as project leaders which the company feels are not needed anymore as a result of automation.
8. Tata Teleservices, which along with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) has a presence in 19 telecom circles in the country, has reportedly fired as many as 600 employees in sales and other similar sectors. The lay-offs have been done at multiple locations and the sacked employees are being offered a severance package consisting of just one-month’s salary. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) on the other hand is reportedly not planning to initiate any layoffs this year.