Job Cuts On Rise

The housing boom in the last few years in India was largely on the back of strong growth in the IT and ITES sectors.
As the employee base at the top 3 Indian IT majors grew 44 per cent. However, with most global and domestic IT companies going slow on hiring plans, housing demand has been adversely impacted. According to a national survey by the Indian Labour Bureau, 5 lakh jobs were lost during Oct-Dec of 2008, with the gems & jewellery, transport and automobile sectors most affected. In the IT sector, Infosys Technologies has put a freeze on new hiring to check costs amid the global economic downturn, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has ruled out salary hikes for next year and said job cuts are possible, and Wipro is said to be planning to cut 4-5 per cent of its total workforce. “Slowing home loan growth of 10 per cent year-on-year on the back of slowing employee growth of 14 per cent at the top 3 Indian IT companies in third quarter of FY09 are early signs of this trend. A deteriorating outlook for Indian IT and our IT headcount forecast for the top 3 IT majors, which have been revised down, raise a demand risk for the residential property,” Citigroup Global Markets said in a report