Gig workers will be more in demand

Job scene in technology industry is changing very fast. Three months back, everyone was talking about high employee attrition, moonlighting, great resignation wave and related aspects. As Indian startups and global technology giants including Meta, Amazon, Google and Twitter among others undertake massive layoffs, sentiments in the job market have sunk substantially. The previous euphoria has now turned into fear and anxiety among staffers. With loss of more than 20,000 jobs in the last six months and no end to the negative news flow, employees are no longer sitting on the driving seat. The job market has again become favourable for employers than employees. Meanwhile, reports suggested that many IT companies and startups have started doing additional due diligence before onboarding the new staffers. Even, such process is getting followed for employees on roll. So, it is expected that some reduction in headcount owing to providing false credentials like fake experience certificate is very much likely. So, no doubt, the scene in job market is changing very fast in India.

Such phenomenon raises the curiosity of industry watchers. Firstly, the cycle of bubble and bust is getting shorter in the technology world. Just before the pandemic, most IT services companies were talking about slowdown in growth and industry experts were expecting consolidation. Thencame the Covid pandemic, which changed the landscape completely. As organisations across the world embraced digital channels to connect with their customers, and general public consumed more digital content owing to restricted mobility; demand for digital services touched a record high. Such demand surge raised profitability of technology companies. Flushed with additional cash and surging demand, these companies hired new hands to fulfil the new demand. These companies arrived at a conclusion that the demand uptick would be sustainable.

And this proved to be drastically wrong. As things got normal, growth rate became usual or similar to pre-pandemic period. Now, companies were left with a bloated workforce without projects to execute. This had led to cutting down of headcount. Now, the question arises who is to blame for such layoffs? There is no clearcut answer to such questions.

The fact is that economic cycles are getting shorter. In technology world, projecting demand beyond some quarters is becoming difficult. In this perspective, companies have to really careful about employee addition in coming time. Such cautiousness is likely to lead demand for more contractual or gig workers as the flexibility of having such workers is greater than hiring someone on roll. Moreover, it is expected that current subdued job market is likely to continue next year. As employees and companies get used to this new normal, technology world will keep searching for new demand creation through innovations. Till that happens, the hey days in the job market seems to be over. Against this backdrop, Indian IT firms are sitting on a relatively stable place for now. As talks of recession and slowdown gather pace, more outsourcing work is expected to come in India's way in coming quarters. Therefore, Indian engineers in domestic IT firms may face less job insecurity as compared to their counterparts in global tech firms.