The recent slump in the IT job market may pose a serious challenge to the Indian economy as the country receives a large amount of revenue from software service exports. As per Xpheno’s latest report (a recruitment agency), during the last 17-months a very limited number of people have been appointed in September last. As a result many qualified aspirants, who desired to join the sector for a good start in their professional lives, are now feeling helpless. The IT companies are showing no urgency in absorbing the workforce in the fear of an impending worldwide recession. To make matters worse, IT companies are not recruiting even those to whom they have already given offer letters during campus recruitments. This is the second occasion in recent times when recruitment rates in the sector have gone down alarmingly. Two years ago with the outbreak of the pandemic, recruitment in this sector suffered tremendously as business activity all over the world came to a standstill. Things started moving from the later part of 2020 as the medical fraternity found a way to tame the lethal virus. But the progress has been severely stalled again due to the ongoing Russia and Ukraine war. Faced with high inflation, IT companies have now decided to put a cap on expenditure fearing an economic crisis soon, forgetting the fact that not only in India, but worldwide youths have shown interest in studying IT as the sector provides ideal employment opportunities with good salaries. So, IT companies should not ignore the reality of the market as stopping recruitments may create an unprecedented unemployment crisis in the world.
The contraction of the IT sector job market may have far reaching consequences in India as the service sector contributes more to our GDP than the agriculture or manufacturing sectors. At the same time, our policy makers should learn a lesson or two from frequent crises in the IT sector. In our country, many youths are earning their livelihoods with the help of the sector and many are waiting to become IT professionals. Several special zones have come up in various parts of the country to facilitate spread of the sector without taking into consideration the fact that total dependence on software service is not a wise move as the said market may change location any time. For instance, if today Bengaluru is the hub of the IT industry in India, tomorrow Mumbai or Kolkata may earn the same distinction by providing more sops to IT companies. The same may happen with other nations too. So, it is always advisable to encourage the hardware service as its demands will never wane. In this context, the Northeast can be an ideal place to be developed as a hardware hub of the country in accordance with the Look East policy due to its pollution-free environment and close proximity with ASEAN countries. In the wake of the job crisis in software service, given a chance the Northeast can provide an ideal answer.