India IT industry to cut 50,000 jobs in next 6 month

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

MUMBAI, Dec. 25 (Chinese media) -- India's IT industry is to cut 50,000 jobs in the next six month due to the impact of global economic meltdown on the export-driven industry, reported Press Trust of India Thursday.

The union of IT Enabled Services, a politically neutral union of IT professionals, Thursday forecast that over 50,000 IT professionals in the country may lose their jobs over the next six months as the situation in the sector is expected to worsen

"There would be 50,000 job losses (IT and BPO put together) over the next six months," Karthik Shekhar, general secretary of IT Enabled Services

The job loss in the IT and BPO sector in the country topped 10,000 in the September-December period, Shekar said.

While employees of medium-sized companies bore the brunt of job losses in the September-December period, it's going to be their counterparts in the big and small firms who would increasingly face the axe in the coming six months, he said.

India has long been well positioned to derive benefits from the ITES market and become a key hub for international outsourcing services, largely due to low staff costs, large pool of skilled, English speaking workforce.