IT industry to add 1,52,500 people in 2004

NASSCOM predicts that about 1,52,500 professionals would be employed in the
IT industry this year, taking the total base to 8,13,500 from the present
6,61,000.

According to NASSCOM, the break up of this base would be an estimated
2,45,500 in the ITES sector, while the rest in software services for exports,
domestic and captive in user organization. The net addition would be the highest
ever since 1999-00. The industry had added 1,46,114 in the year 2000-01 and then
dipped to 92,136, thanks to the slow-down. It bounced back this year (2002-03)
adding 1,38,750 professionals and is poised to better in the next year.

ITES companies are estima-ted to recruit 74,500 professio-nals compared to
55,000 by IT services. While the latter is for the software export sector, the
domestic circuit would be adding a paltry 3,000 people, according to
predictions. How-ever, the sector has been adding that many people only in the
past four years. The total also includes the software aspect of the captive in
user organization, which adds about 20,000 professionals.

On the ITES-BPO front, cus-tomer care is expected to con-tinue offering the
highest contribution growing at a significant pace. Finance, payment services,
admini-stration and content develop-ment and lastly HR follow this closely. In
terms of increase in seat capacity of the ITES-BPO sector, it is projected to
grow up to 2,10,000, by the end of the year, from the present 1,40,000 seats for
the current 2,45,500 professionals servi-cing the sector.

NASSCOM revealed this during the pre-event con-ference of its NASSCOM 2004.
McKinsey does the annual study of the IT industry for NASSCOM.

CyberMedia News Service

Mumbai