Indian IT worker layoff during 2008 US (world) recession is reality?

Though there is no recession officially (If the two consecutive quarters don’t see any growth than there is recession, by definition) but it seems it has already started hitting the IT workers in India. There are rumours that IBM has fired around 700 engineers in India. Other companies are reducing the performance bonuses etc. I am not sure if the layoff has started in India for the IT workers or the companies are just cleaning the redundant, non-performing staff to save the cost on salaries. As we already know that the Indian Rupee appreciation against dollar in the last one year has hit the profit margins for the IT/BPO companies, companies will take every step to make themselves efficient to fight with any recession in the US. Since US is still the largest market for most of the IT companies, any bad news for the US economy will hit the Indian IT industry as well. Companies are trying to diversify into the Europe and Australian and Asian market but the share from these regions is still significantly low.

I doubt that the slow growth or recession in the US market will hit Indian IT companies for very long because companies will cut the IT spending in the first year of recession and they will have more outsourcing to cut the cost and that will help the IT industry in India. In this scenario, engineers working for these companies should try not to take too much risk with the performance and try to improve the skill set that can be used for diverse projects. It should not happen like the Y2K boom time when every engineer had almost same skills and when the boom burst they had nothing else do. If the current employees continue to provide value to the companies and companies see high value in the future, chances are you will not be fired or made redundant.

It may be hard time for the current student looking for the jobs in IT sector. Students should do their homework properly to search for the jobs and be ready to go for higher education for one-to-two years in case economy goes south and they don’t find job. Don’t take this bad luck, but convert it good luck by learning new skills.