The Future of Tech Hiring in India

Global tech hiring has been in the doldrums since 2022. Major companies and startups have laid off more than 3,28,000 employees in less than 18 months. With fears of a global recession showing no signs of retreat, what does the future hold for hiring tech talent in India? Is the slump in tech hiring a temporary blip or a trend for the long haul? This article will explore these issues in detail and assess the future implications for tech talent and recruiters in India. 

What Is The State Of Tech Lay-Offs In India?

When you focus on Indian cities, the total number of employees let go since 2022 is close to 40,000 across 138 tech companies.

A broad look at the companies involved indicates that startups in ed-tech, transportation, and food delivery are most affected by lay-offs. This is not surprising as many of these companies experienced a surge in demand during the lockdown years which has fallen off significantly in recent years, particularly in the ed-tech space.

Meanwhile, WITCH companies like Wipro and TCS are bucking the trend somewhat, having added 1,05,000 new professionals in H1 2022 alone. However, the overall outlook for recruitment in Indian IT sectors remains bleak, with even the Indian tech majors opting for hiring freezes and variable pay cuts in 2023.

The Lay-Offs Mask A Deeper Demand In Tech Talent

As tech companies look to downsize and cut costs, other sectors are witnessing a boom in demand for tech talent. According to Entrepreneur, the current chill in IT is not a long-term trend, but a result of over-hiring during the early days of the pandemic.

In March 2019, IMF reported that the global shortage of tech talent could exceed 8.5 crores by 2030. A NASSCOM-Zinnov study from 2022 predicted that Indian tech companies could face a shortage of up to 19 lakh tech workers by 2026, representing a 3.5 fold increase from the current tech gap of 21.1 per cent.

TeamLease reports indicate that by 2026, nearly 50 per cent of the current workforce would require re-skilling to remain employable. Over 75 per cent of Indian companies in the tech space already face a skill gap and shortage of qualified candidates in emerging areas like AI, cybersecurity, and blockchain. 

Digital Transformation Is Driving Tech Hiring In Non-Tech Sectors

In 2020, McKinsey highlighted how COVID-19 compelled many organisations to invest in digital transformation. At most medium-to-large enterprises, large-scale adoption of digital technologies can take several years – a complex process that cannot be stopped mid-stream.

Technological disruption always brings along with it an increased demand for tech talent. Enterprises need professionals to build new apps and systems, power the transition from legacy systems, and above all, ensure digital security in the face of increasing cyber threats.

This is a major reason why the demand for software developers/engineers, data scientists, IT security professionals, and back-end engineers have more than doubled since 2021. Tech job postings across sectors like finance, banking, healthcare, and aerospace show no sign of slowing down.

And the situation is no different in India, according to a recent Economic Times report. Non-tech firms are absorbing nearly 20 per cent of tech talent from IT companies, and the demand has increased three-fold since the pandemic.

The Future Is All About Reskilling And Managing Expectations

The rise of ChatGPT and other Large Language Models has significant implications for organisations, jobseekers, and even recruiting professionals. Businesses who ignore the potential of AI risk are left behind by more agile and efficient competitors.

While Goldman Sachs reported that AI could take up to 30 crore jobs away from humans in the upcoming decade, the technology is already creating an entirely new array of job profiles. Some of these positions include prompt engineering, data detectives/scientists, and experts in AI-assisted healthcare.

Many of these are jobs that require tech professionals with a multidisciplinary skill set across domains like coding/programming, data science, linguistics, deep learning, healthcare, communications, and even HR.

Navigating the future job market without facing the threat of redundancy will require a broad skill set. This is why enterprises and jobseekers alike need to focus heavily on learning new skills to augment their existing capabilities.

Recruiters have a challenging time ahead. While the lay-offs in the tech space have increased the availability of talent, this is a short-term trend. Business Standard reports how AI developments are spurring tech companies to move back into hiring mode in 2023.

As the demand inevitably heats up, non-tech organisations will have to compete even harder for the best tech talent. This will require a delicate balancing of hiring budgets with the high expectations of a talent pool used to the pay scales and benefits offered by high-growth startups and Silicon Valley giants.