1.5 lakh IT professionals might lose jobs due to Covid-19

1.5 lakh employees in India's IT industry might lose their jobs over the next three-to-six months.

Majority of these layoffs will happen in small IT firms, said HR experts

The industry employs about 45-50 lakh, of which and smaller firms account for about 10-12 lakh.

The top five IT firms alone employ close to 10 lakh people.

As novel coronavirus outbreak intensifies, employees have become the casualty.

The entire travel and hospitality industry has been hit, manufacturing has paused.

Companies have already warned investors about their performance in the upcoming quarter.

The lockdown, which in some countries has been extended till May, is not helping matters either.

More than anything, it is the uncertainty that is impacting decisions

Smaller firms have started laying off employees with each project ramp down

ITeS-BPO firm Fareportal, which caters to the travel industry, laid off more than 300 employees.

IT union has claimed that the company had asked employees to resign by giving a two-hour notice.

It is unclear if the company will lay off more employees.

This move comes after the company's business, went down by 85 percent.

Besides laying off employees, pay cuts for executives and the CEO’s is also being done

Experts expect the number of people laid off to rise as the situation gets worse.

  Employees who were supposed to be deployed in new projects, are now stalled

Employees are under pressure and are likely to be asked to leave next

With hardly any job openings in the market at least for the next few months..

... techies are going to find it almost impossible to land any job.

Most firms have paused hiring and many startups have announced pay cuts.

However there is still no clarity on how long it would take for the companies to recover.

Another expert said, it may take longer for recruitment to resume.