Green industry, semiconductor space to create a lot of jobs in India

Hiring in the technology industry has slumped in the current year with no likelihood of revival in the next one quarter or so. Top four IT firms- Tata Consultancy Service, Infosys, HCL Tech and Wipro- have cumulatively cut their workforce by about 38,950 employees in the first half of this fiscal. However, staffing firms are of the opinion that hiring will come back to normalcy in the next two quarters. In a conversation with the Bizz Buzz, Siva Prasad Nanduri, CEO of staffing firm, Diensten Tech said that niche skills continue to be in demand despite a low hiring environment. He said that green industry and semiconductor space will create many jobs in India in coming years. Talking about startup space, Nanduri opined that hiring is happening in selected segment of startups in which demand remains strong

Hiring trend in the IT industry has been inching down for some quarters now. Do you see any light at the end of the tunnel?

We have been searching for light at the end of tunnel for past few quarters. But I think, the trend continues to be slightly positive compared to what it was about two quarters back. I don't say that the winter is over. We will not see the peak hiring that we have seen during pre-pandemic. Definitely, post-pandemic hiring is an aberration. But pre-pandemic hiring normalcy will not return, at least for next two quarters.

What about hiring in other sectors at a time when technology sector is facing headwinds?

Manufacturing continues to provide good indicators. If you look at it, our industrial output remains positive. Our GST collections have been positive. So, we don't see much impact in the other industries. But, there is definitely a cautious outlook in the IT industry. However, we will see a better growth from the GCCs (Global Capability Centres) in India. We think, GCCs will continue to hire more. That's the positivity, we will see in the coming quarter. Though FY24 is a low hiring year, positivity will definitely return in FY25.

You said that GCC hiring is a bit better than those of IT services companies. How much better is the GCC hiring at this point of time? Is it business as usual in the GCC space?

It's not business as usual in the IT industry. There's no doubt about it. For instance, fresher hiring segment is almost less than 50 per cent in the IT services space. So, the hiring has dropped significantly. However, GCC hiring space is better than IT firms because many GCCs are coming to India. The estimate is that over next five to six years, India will have 2,500-3,000 GCCs from the current 1400 GCCs. With so many GCCs coming into India, more jobs will be created.

So, according to Diensten Tech, the landscape of hiring in India remains positive in the medium-term. Can we carry this message?

With more jobs coming in, hiring will take place in new technologies space and in the new industries. Take for example the case of the green industry, which is poised to create around 3 million jobs over next 15 years. So, overall if you look at it, while the current trend might be low due to macroeconomic conditions and global situations like wars, there are a lot of positives that will supplement hiring. For instance, companies are betting big on AI, especially on Generative AI space. That will drive a lot of hiring. No doubt, people are slightly cautious now but India is in the right place in terms of the growth. So, we definitely see that over next two quarters the course correction will happen and the hiring will come back to normalcy in FY25.

We have seen notification from many IT firms asking their employees to come back to offices for all five days in a week. Similarly, many companies are making it mandatory to work atleast for few days in a week from office. What are your views on this matter? Is remote working coming to an end?

Organisations can't move away from hybrid work, whether three day work week, ten day work in month. I know, while some organisations are calling for one day a week, there are others, which are calling (their employees) one day a month. Look, during the days of pandemic and post-pandemic, there were a lot of discussions about moonlighting, quiet quitting and others. A lot of terminologies have been coined over the last two-three years. But, if you actually look at it, my view is that hybrid work will continue for a while because a lot of organisations have addressed the challenge of productivity. Having said that, basically the organization culture will be missing because of complete remote work. When you onboard a candidate, he/she doesn't understand the organisation culture. So probably their participation in understanding the organisation goals, and metrics among others is essential.

The other reason why organisations are pushing for work from home also lies with the element of AI (artificial intelligence) getting into a lot of organizations. That pushes the need for a lot of upskilling, and reskilling. We have seen several announcements from IT companies reskilling their employees in new age AI skills. AI will complement the existing work and drive hiring of employees.

During the last quarter (Q2 of FY24), we saw a lot of positions not getting backfilled, leading to a drop in total employee count. What exactly is happening in case of backfilling?

Yes, unless and until it is very critical, backfilling is not happening. At least during the last quarter, IT firms were not filling up vacancies as they were trying to normalize the employee count and productivity. But I will say that this is just a passing phase. It's just a passing cloud, not a climate change.

Do you see any change in the hiring environment in the Indian startup ecosystem? Can you throw some light on this aspect?

It depends on which industry you are in. I mean, when pandemic started, edtech segment witnessed was on a boom. That has kind of bottomed out. Fintech is definitely one area, where we see a lot of green shoots. Medtech is another segment, which stays green (in terms of employee addition). So, it all depends on which industry the startup is operating as the market conditions for different industries are different. So, hiring is very skewed with some startups hiring in big numbers, while some startups not hiring at all. But, with whatever startups we are working, the hiring is really cold.

Which skills are in high demand in this environment of low hiring?

Data-related skills are in a high demand. Because, in all AI, ML, and related emerging technologies, they require data. So, a lot of jobs are available on the data science, data architecture, and related aspects. Similarly, cloud computing skills are in high demand. Cybersecurity skills will continue to be on demand. So, some of the niche skills, especially on the UX, DevOps, data science, data architecture, cloud computing, and cybersecurity among others will continue to be on demand. On the jobs, green and semiconductor industry are likely to create a lot of jobs in the near future.