Information technology industry body Nasscom on Thursday painted a rather gloomy picture for Indian IT companies in the short to long term, as the three leaders – Wipro, Infosys and TCS – have come out with less than impressive earnings, giving rise to concerns about job creation in the sector.
By Baishakhi Dutta
On the jobs front, Nasscom said recruitment by the IT services sector in the current financial year is expected to decline from the last year’s level as the companies are facing pressure on margins, besides focusing on automation of jobs. This is the first decline since 2009.
Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar is of the opinion that hiring activity in the year before last was 2.20 lakh (new jobs created in the IT sector). Last year (FY 2015-16), there were about two lakh additions. This financial year, they are expecting it to be on the lower side of that.
He further notified that for a country like India, automation works differently as cost effectiveness on automation is different because India’s economic levels are different. He expects 5-10 per cent of existing jobs to be automated in the next 10 years.
While entry-level coding jobs will see a cut, there will demand for skills in robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), the digital space, biotech, nanotech, smart technologies, etc.
Chandrasekhar also revealed a Nasscom-McKinsey study on IT sector jobs. As per the study, the sector has 3.7 million employees now. It would need 1.2-2 million more heads to achieve the revenue target of $100 billion by 2025. According to the industry body, the companies are strengthening their existing workforce.
