1.1 million IT jobs to be created by 2008

MUMBAI: A Nasscom survey on industry employment indicated a growth of 24.4 percent in 2002-03, to touch 650,000 IT professionals from previous year’s headcount of 522,250. Of these 205,000 are working in the IT software exports industry, 160,000 are employed in IT Enabled Services, 25,000 in the domestic software market and over 260,000 in user organisations.

Hiring of new IT professionals was highest in south India at 44 percent and lowest in eastern region at 6 percent. According to Kiran Karnik, Nasscom is trying hard to remove this geographical disparity, especially with regard to the east and the north-east. In the offing are plans to hold an annual Nasscom event in the eastern part and to make Kolkata as the hub for the IT activities of the entire eastern and north-eastern regions.

Considering that the overall median age of the software professionals was about 26.5 years, Karnik also revealed plans about discounts and incentives to companies to send younger representatives to the Nasscom sessions. 79 percent of software professionals in software companies were men, whereas 21 percent were women.

This role was however totally reversed in the ITES sector where the ratio of males to females was 35 to 65. 42 percent of the software professionals possessed over three years of working experience which reinforces the need for the industry to hire professional who can scale up the activity and address issues quickly to reduce turn around time.

There was an average of 8 percent rise in basic salary during 2002 with most companies increasingly adopting the variable pay concept in order to link pay to revenues, and control costs. The survey also revealed that 76 percent of all software professionals had a graduate degree or above ­ 13 percent were M.Tech, MBA, CA, ICWA, 62 percent were B.Tech, BE or MCA and 23 percent were diploma-holders or graduates.

The survey also highlighted the potential shortfall of 235,000 people by 2008 if current trends of intake of technical talent into the IT workforce continue. The demand for software professionals is expected to be approximately 1.1 million people by 2008, however the supply of software professionals, based on current trends, is projected to be 885,000 by 2008.