Labour market deepening in India's IT: an exploratory analysis

Abstract

The Indian Information Technology (IT) sector has seen significant growth in terms of employment and revenue and is expected to provide quality employment to a large number of workers in the coming years. A more widespread participation of workers with different skill/education profiles, gender, regions, etc, would facilitate deepening of the labour market and eventually reduce costs. This paper hopes to provide a tentative understanding of the processes that have been important for the evolution of the IT labour market in India. It analyses NASSCOM and National Sample Survey (NSS) data to explore the processes that deepen the IT labour market in India. The analysis suggests that deepening is actually taking place, but the pace can probably be enhanced. Transition to the offshore model, growth of the ITES sector, competition and infrastructure-led movement of IT activity to smaller cities, and hiring of workers with diverse education backgrounds and of women workers have facilitated the deepening processes. However, these processes need to be intensified.