Demand for white-collar jobs in IT sector lowest in 28 months: Report

The number of active white-collar job openings decreased by 21% in April compared to March, said the report

The demand for white-collar jobs in the Indian IT services sector, which accounts for the majority of jobs in the technology sector cohort, reached its lowest volume in the previous 28 months in April, a report by Economic Times (ET) said.

The report said that the number of active white-collar job openings decreased by 21 per cent in April compared to March, and the sector posted 54 per cent fewer positions overall.

Data from the employment platform showed a similar trend with job postings reduced to half in IT services and products.

According to search firms CIEL HR and Longhouse Consulting, their mandates from major IT companies have decreased by 50-60 per cent compared to a year ago.

The turmoil in the global banking sector has lead IT sector consultants and job market experts to predict that IT services firms will adopt a more cautious stance before adding to their payrolls. Other than that, the persistent macroeconomic unpredictability around the world is making employers more cautious while hiring, it said.

Nitin Bhatt, partner & technology sector leader at EY, stated that several corporate and retail customers are switching from regional banks to larger banks as a result of the US banking crisis.

This would lead to a greater emphasis on work related to infrastructure management services (IMS) and applications management services (AMS) in the short to medium term. Many players are addressing these needs through bench reuse and automation, Bhatt said.

He added that digital transformation initiatives in the BFSI sector are currently moving slowly, but once the recession is over, they will pick up speed.

The decline in demand has occurred amid quarterly results that emerged below expectations. "The Q4 results from the IT services bellwethers did not bring any cheer to the talent market," said Anil Ethanur, co-founder of Xpheno.

"With the outlook remaining low for the upcoming quarters, we may be at least two quarters away from witnessing a significant recovery in tech hiring action," Ethanur added.

Meanwhile, the sector experts said that even though companies have tightened up on hiring new employees, a large bench size is still something to be concerned about.