A Tale of Two Countries...that are joined by a one-way job-way

Interesting to read two sharply contrasting headlines at the same time...

Unemployment rates rose in 43 states last month, the government said Friday, painting a bleak picture of the job market and illustrating nationwide data released two weeks ago.The rise in joblessness was a sharp change from November, when 36 states said their unemployment rates fell. Four states — Delaware, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina — reported record-high jobless rates in December.New Jersey’s rate, meanwhile, rose to a 33-year high of 10.1 percent while New York’s reached a 26-year high of 9 percent.Analysts said the report showed the economy is recovering at too weak a pace to generate consistent job creation. A lot of states that had started to add jobs in November gave up the gains in December, Sophia Koropeckyj, managing director at Moody’s Economy.com, said.

Robust Hiring and RObust raises...in India

The improvement in business sentiments and revival in IT spend have finally translated into robust headcount additions not seen by the top three software vendors the previous two quarters.In the third quarter, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies and Wipro registered combined net addition of 16,701 employees against 1,238 in the previous sequential quarter.TCS led the pack with net additions of 7,692, closely followed by its Bangalore-based rivals Wipro (which saw a net addition of 4,855 for its IT services) and Infosys, which reported net additions of 4,429 people.However, the big question is whether or not the IT bellwether companies will hire on similar lines in the quarters to come.Backlog clearance“In the last year or so, the hiring done by IT companies was suppressed and hence what we are seeing could be release of the pent up demand. Many of them are looking at clearing the earlier backlog,” Mr E. Balaji, Chief Executive Officer of manpower consultancy firm Ma Foi, told Business Line. TCS has already indicated that it may take on board close to 11,000 in the current quarter, of whom 8,000 would be campus recruits from the 2008-09 batch.Attrition fearsOn the flipside, the return to a business environment devoid of uncertainty could soon see an increase in attrition levels, the biggest nightmare for HR managers in IT companies.The brunt may have to be borne by mid-size software outsourcers that could be confronted with attrition levels of around 15 per cent, say analysts.“Given that large brands have not been hiring for quite a while, employees of mid-size IT companies may consider jumping (to these large companies) if given the opportunity,” said Mr Balaji.Significantly, IT bellwethers have also increased utilisation rates (number of people billed per hundred, as against those on the ‘bench' who are yet to find a client). Including trainees, the utilisation rates have shot up for the top three players, be it TCS (77.2 per cent from 73.6 per cent), Infosys (68.8 per cent from 67.3 per cent) or Wipro (73.2 per cent from 70.8 per cent).

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