Fewer jobs, lower raises: IT growth to slow to 15%

Slower growth, fewer new jobs, single digit wage increases. The country’s booming IT industry, which grew 30 per cent a year for a decade, is waking up to new global realities.

Slower growth, fewer new jobs, single digit wage increases. The country’s booming IT industry, which grew 30 per cent a year for a decade, is waking up to new global realities.

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India’s IT sector exports, which include revenue from software and business process outsourcing (BPO) services, is expected to grow by 15 per cent in 2009/10 and the following year, slowing from the current year, when it is estimated to grow by 16 to 17 per cent to $47 billion from $40.4 billion last year.

Industry officials think India can help fight a global recession.

“There is no other industry than IT that is better placed to deliver cost effective solutions to the world,” said Pramod Bhasin, vice president of industry association Nasscom.

Ganesh Natarajan, Nasscom’s chairman, said the sector is estimated to have created 2.23 lakh jobs in 2008/09 create at least 1 lakh jobs over the next year.

“Getting wage increases is a positive sign in itself and one could expect low single digit raises this year,” Bhasin said.