IT Sector: The global economic situation and the conflict in the Ukraine contributed to a 43% decrease in recruiting in the information technology (IT) and business process management (BPM) sectors in October compared to the average from January to September 2022, according to a survey released on Friday.

According to mid-management recruitment business CIEL HR Services, hiring for senior management was down 68% in October compared to the same month. According to data, hiring is anticipated to increase in the 2023 January–March quarter.

When compared to September of this year, hiring overall fell by 4% in October, and it fell by 10% for senior management positions. The study comprised information gathered from the top 50 IT and BPM firms, which employ over half of the market.

“The reasons for the decline in hiring are global headwinds like the ongoing war, drying up of start-up capital and also due to the fact that a lot of companies are tightening the strings for IT. They are using money for absolute essentials, not investing money on future looking softwares,” said Aditya Narayan Mishra, managing director and chief executive officer, CIEL HR Services.

CIEL expected hiring activity increasing by around 15 per cent during the coming January to March period, compared to the average for October to December. “The recovery is expected to happen during the January to March period. The driving forces right now continue to be caution, but in the January to March period, it will shift towards cost optimisation, so India will score high from a cost optimisation perspective,” Mishra said.

The research is released at a time when numerous global technology businesses have made layoff announcements. Early in November, Facebook parent firm Meta revealed it would be letting go roughly 11,000 workers; Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter resulted in 3,700 job layoffs; and in October, Microsoft said it would be cutting staff across several departments.