28 Jan 2023  |   01:53am IST

Massive Layoffs in Indian Tech Sector

A study by NASSCOM

, an IT and tech employee association, and Indeed, a job search portal, highlighted that young Indians (over 70% of the Gen Z learners surveyed) would rather work in the tech sector despite the massive layoffs happening in the industry. This is because they find the tech sector quite aspirational and are interested in tech jobs.

Big firms cut workers

There's a massive layoff exercise being experienced in the Indian tech industry amidst fears of a looming recession. After giant companies, including Apple, Meta, and Twitter, laid off thousands of workers in 2022, the Indian tech sector is also facing a difficult time as dismissals keep up. Here's a look at the latest layoffs in Indian tech firms amid impending economic slowdowns.

Ola

Ola has begun by laying off more than 200 employees from Ola electric, Ola Financial Services, and Ola cabs as part of their restructuring exercise. The company closed down Ola Dash, a store-door delivery service, and Ola Cars, it's used vehicle business. With a recent announcement to hire 5,000 engineers, Ola appears to be directing its focus to engineering.

ShareChat

After dismissing 5% of its workforce in December 2022, ShareCut is back with a new job cut round. Mohalla Tech, the parent company behind Moj and ShareCut, is releasing 20% or over 400 employees, with most of them based in India.

Byju’s

Byju's, an EdTech giant, declared last month that it would

cut employees by 2,500

by 5% by March 2023 to minimize costs. The firm has dismissed around 100 staff members from Kerala's media content division. Byju Raveendran, the company's CEO, in an email to the staff, said the job cuts were due to adverse macroeconomic elements, forcing a focus on sustainability and capital-efficient growth.

Dunzo

Dunzo, an Indian quick grocery delivery service, on Monday confirmed that they had let go of 3% of their workforce amidst cost-cutting measures.

Painful exit from the US

Layoffs in the tech industry have impacted many Indians working in the United States on visas such as the H-1B. Meta, which owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and Twitter, on November 9 announced it would release 13% of its staff, the first mass layoff in the company's history, which saw 11,000 employees lose employment.

Indian startups laid off 20,000 workers in 2022

According to

data gathered by Moneycontrol

, Indian startups have dismissed nearly 20,000 employees. Startup workers have had a challenging 2022. Several firms, even well-funded ones, laid off many employees.

There’s hope

With various sectors, India’s economy is growing quickly. IT and technology, healthcare and medical services, renewable energy and sustainability, AI and machine learning, live shopping apps, IT firms, telecom sector, digital payments, FMCG sector, and data analytics, big data, and data science are some of the emerging sectors for employment in India in 2023. Additionally, the iGaming and gaming sectors are expected to have the fastest job growth rates in 2023, with many

online casinos in GOA

actively recruiting.

The threat from AI

There has been talk that professions reliant on content production, including programmers, journalists, professors, and playwrights, might be rendered obsolete by ChatGPT. However, this is still up for debate because this Chatbot isn't entirely reliable. It can present misinformation as facts and also give completely wrong responses.