Indian Techies Benched Despite Revival Forecast

Optimistic findings by research and recruitment firms, anticipating a revival and increase in hiring of IT professionals in the US, have failed to enthuse techies in India and abroad, with Indian companies too going slow on recruitments.

A recent study developed by US-based RHI Consulting has anticipated a net 15 percent increase in the hiring of IT professionals in the fourth quarter of 2001. The Information Technology Hiring Index that surveyed 1,400 chief information officers (CIOs) in the US, found that 18 per cent firms plan to add IT personnel in the last three months of the year, while 3 percent expect staff reductions.

The net increase in projected hiring activity is up three percentage points from the previous quarter's forecast, a company spokesperson told ET.

CIOs in the South Atlantic states forecast particularly strong hiring activity through the remainder of 2001. Twenty-seven per cent of them plan to expand their IT departments and just one per cent anticipate personnel cutbacks, for a net 26 percent hiring increase.

In the Mid-Atlantic states, 25 per cent of CIOs plan to add IT personnel and 5 percent expect staff cutbacks, for a net 20 percent hiring increase. In the East South Central region, executives anticipate a net hiring increase of 19 percent.

Sectors like finance, insurance, real estate and pharmaceuticals and health care continue to require skilled technical staff, while there is heightened demand in the region for experienced networking professionals as well as Internet security experts who can assist companies in safeguarding data and systems, the spokesperson said.

However, it's still bench time for Indian techies both in India and abroad. Experts say the situation has turned worse from bad for the techies and the market will take quite some time to revive, with Indian companies too going slow on hiring.

"It'll take at least 5-6 quarters more to actually have a revival in terms of providing jobs to the volumes of techies. In March things were bad, and now they are not even able to cope. The impact of the slowdown has been phenomenal," says Mr T Sreedhar, ED of TMI Network.

"Even the entire hi-tech and chips side of the telecom field has gone for a six. Currently, almost none of applicants at want jobs abroad, while at least 60-90 techies per month registered with the firm are seeking to return to India. Overall, it could go into a lakh," he says.

Only the IT-enabled segment is growing, not IT per se. Till next 5-6 quarters it will be very tough as Indian companies are not recruiting. Techies are survive by not making any demands, willing to one third of their salaries with consultants, he says.

Agrees Mr Zaheer Zaidi, consultant ISpan.org: "The slump will remain this quarter, and things will start moving only next year. There are about 60,000 software professionals in Hyderabad, of which 20 per cent are on job hunt after being retrenched. Also, there are lots of them -- 200 techies with us alone -- looking to come back to India. Most of them, are out of jobs and on the bench, are from the Web-based technology end, networking and database side, with even 4 to 6 years of experience."

And with some important immigration law bills stalled in the US Congress -- like S 2045 in the Senate (Abraham bill), and HR 3983 in the House of Representatives (Dreier-Lofgren bill), both which would raise the H1B cap, and also include helpful provisions for persons pursuing Green Cards, such as: (a) extensions of H-1 beyond 6 years if the labor certification or the Green Card petition is pending; and (b) relief from per-country quotas, it only seems to be getting tougher, the experts say.

But, despite their on-site experience and skill, companies like TCS, E-Runway, Cysphere, etc -- which are still hiring, are preferring local techies over their US counterparts, they say.

"Techies in US still have high expectations, and after having been paid in dollars, are still demanding exhorbitant salaries. Companies here are not willing to dole out such large compensations. Also, the requirements are immediate, a plug and play situation, and they aren't willing to give the techies any extra time to join," says Mr Zaidi.

"Indian companies want to see them in person because there have been instances of proxying for others, and moreover, it's an immediate requirement," says Mr Sreedhar.

However, the hope that things will improve is holding some of them back, with speculations about salaries reaching all-time high next year. The US market is totally down, but Malaysia is picking up. There are good tech jobs in the Old Economy sectors such as palm oil and construction, they add.