Let’s quickly visit the job situation(as of August 8, 2009) in the US and India.
Job Situation in the US:
- 6.7 million jobs have been axed since the recession began 20 months ago.
- Employers in the US have eliminated 2,47,000 jobs in July 2009 as compared to the peak job loss of 7,41,000 in January 2009.
- “The worst may be behind us”, says Obama
courtesy: The New York Times
Job Situation in India:
- Hiring activity up by 8.1% in comparison with May 2009.
- The highest upward movement since July, 2008.
courtesy: Naukri Job Speak
What can we infer?
- Millions of Jobs cut in the US, whereas only Salary’s of labor cut in India.
- Companies in the US sporadically fire people, whereas those in India only stop fresh hiring.
At the moment, job market in India is much better in comparison with the US. Any impact on the US economy does not directly affect the Indian economy, although Indian IT industry piggybacks the US IT industry.
This may be accounted to Asian conservatism. Asian work culture is strikingly different from that of the western world. In Asia, job security is considered more important than salary hike or growth. Asians prefer secure jobs such as Government jobs over private jobs, though career growth in government jobs is slower. Indian banks typically are conservative, and are not driven by quick money. So they take lesser risk. Lesser risk means more safety.
Indian IT industry can be thought of as a biker riding the bike of the US IT market, wearing a helmet and necessary safety gear. If the bike encounters an accident, the biker gets injured, but not as much as the bike gets injured (he’s wearing a helmet, remember).
The magnitude of any economic storm that originates in the US gets diminished by the time it comes to India. Furthermore, there is always a lag of 5 months before it reaches India.
The US has seen its worst month of unemployment in June 2009, so exactly 5 months from June, i.e., November 2009, Indian IT industry would face a really tough time. As mentioned earlier, worst in India does not essentially mean millions of job cuts, but means lesser hiring and salary cuts.
The most affected group in India would be the graduates who pass out in 2009. My advice to them would be to find a job immediately in the coming months before November, for they are going to see a dry market until May 2010. My advice to those that are already employed, would be not to look for any Job change and to ensure their job security until mid of 2010.
This article was moved from the parent site – Interview Mantra.
About the Author: Sridhar Jammalamadaka is the editor of this blog, Interview Mantra. He is a professional blogger from Pune, India. He is an experienced programmer with expertise in Java, C and Micro Controller programming. He enjoys playing cricket and piano. Through this blog, he wishes to gather a large online community of aspiring Indians - students and working professionals. You can find him on Twitter at @sriavr 