66% of Active Job Seekers will Increase their Time Spent on Job Search: LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Index

LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, today announced the findings of the seventh edition of the Workforce Confidence Index, a fortnightly pulse on the confidence of the Indian workforce. Based on the survey responses of 1,303 professionals in India, findings from June 15-28 reveal India’s rising optimism towards job security as businesses slowly reopened last month.

The seventh edition of the Workforce Confidence Index shows a modest increase in India’s overall workforce confidence, which reflects in this fortnight’s composite score of +50 (up from +48 in June 1-14). This growing confidence comes at a time when the economy continues to reboot, thus sparking hiring prospects across varied industries such as ecommerce, IT services, insurance and gaming. In fact, the economic repercussions of the pandemic have also urged businesses to innovate their offerings to lead through change, thereby stimulating job creation across sectors. Backing this up, Arvind Mediratta, MD & CEO of Metro Cash & Carry India says, “There is going to be a lot of demand for new products and services which, maybe, we’re not even able to envisage right now.”

Active job seekers confident about career progression as economy reboots

The lifting of the lockdown in several states and the continued adversities caused by COVID-19 have instituted a new set of workforce demands, thus creating new economic opportunities across the country’s industrial landscape. This uptick in hiring has fuelled the confidence of active job seekers towards career progression as findings show that about 2 in 3 professionals will increase their time spent searching for (66%) and applying to (64%) jobs in the next 2 weeks. Findings also highlight the active job seekers’ clear intent to upskill today for a safer tomorrow as 68% say they will increase their time spent on online learning to harbor long-term job security and career progression.

Decision makers more confident about job security than junior workers

To understand how this optimism towards job security differs across seniority levels, the LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Index also captured responses from professionals with varied work experience levels. Findings state that decision makers appear to be more confident about their job security when compared to their junior workers. Only 1 in 4 senior professionals said they would increase their time spent on searching for jobs in comparison to almost half (45%) of the junior workforce. Further reinforcing the confidence of senior executives towards job security, findings showed that only 16% of Director+ professionals (decision makers) would increase the number of jobs they apply to, when compared to 48% of the junior workforce.

Commenting on this growing optimism, HR expert Prabir Jha explains why India’s rising hope towards job security comes with slight trepidation - “It must be understood that retaining a job in the present times is in itself a strong confidence booster. Many people are also willing to take up to 50% cut in their salaries for an assured job. This means that whoever retains a job today, clearly knows that his/her role matters to the organization even in the new reality.”

He also added, “More experienced workers may have savings to support them in the long run,” to explain why senior professionals are not as inclined towards increasing their time spent on searching for jobs.

Job-seekers can signal that they are #OpenToWork, with LinkedIn’s new feature

To help job seekers land a job in an uncertain environment, LinkedIn is providing free tools and resources for effective job search and placement. One such profile feature that was recently launched is #OpenToWork, which helps job seekers maximize their visibility on the LinkedIn platform. The feature, which frames the profile picture on LinkedIn, helps members signal to recruiters that they are immediately available to take up in-market opportunities. The feature also helps them specify the types of jobs they are interested in, and what their preferred start date and location is. So far, more than 30 million job seekers have used the #OpenToWork tool to find their next job on the platform.

Here are a few member stories that show how this tool is assisting them to connect with the right opportunities during such testing times -

●     Shilpisweta asked for advice, or opportunities from her network as she embarked on finding a new role in a LinkedIn post.

●     Yash moved back to India and decided to post on LinkedIn to find opportunities in the Social Media Management and Branded Content Strategy fields.

●     Vijay lost his job due to the COVID-19 situation and asked his LinkedIn network to refer him to new opportunities in a LinkedIn post.

●     Gopinath thanked his previous employer- Uber for the learnings in a LinkedIn post and asked his connections for leads to another exciting job opportunity.

Other free tools that help job seekers prepare for interviews and gain the right guidance include ‘Interview Prep’ and ‘Offer Help’. While ‘Offer Help’ makes it easier for our members to share that they are willing and able to extend a helping hand to their connections who are actively looking for opportunities, ‘Interview Prep’ offers free tools, including a new Microsoft-AI powered feature, to help members demonstrate their skills through effective interviewing and real-time feedback.

Will Cisco layoff another 600+ jobs?

Another round of employees at Cisco Systems reportedly got pink slips Thursday, as the company laid off several hundred employees as part of its plan to cut costs and realign its business.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that between 600 and 700 Cisco employees were laid off at the company's headquarters in San Jose, Calif. The company also cut jobs at branch offices in other parts of the U.S. The Wall Street Journal cited sources close to the company.

A spokesman for the company told the Wall Street Journal that Cisco was "doing everything possible to minimize the impact on employees affected by the limited restructuring."

Like all companies, Cisco, which makes networking equipment that runs the Internet and provides communications for large companies, has seen sales slump as a result of the global recession. The company said earlier this year that it would likely cut between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs as it realigned its business to focus on newer more profitable business segments. The cuts were expected to be completed at the end of the company's fiscal year, which ends this month.

In February, Cisco said it cut about 250 jobs at its San Jose headquarters. Cisco had 66,558 employees at the end of April. Despite the cuts, Cisco's CEO John Chambers has said publicly that he believes the worst of the recession is over. But he noted that it could take some time before spending returns to high levels. Wall Street will be watching the company's next earnings call very carefully to see signs that the bottom has been reached. Cisco will report fiscal fourth quarter and end of year earnings on August 5 after the market closes.

CNet.com

Recession hit Adobe, shuts US operations down for one-week

Adobe Inc, the world’s biggest maker of graphic-design software, shut down North American operations this week, part of a plan to cut operating costs as the recession crimps sales.

Adobe told employees in March it would impose one-week closures in the second, third and fourth quarters, and asked staff to take paid vacation time, the company said today.

“These are in addition to the normal holiday shutdown” between Christmas and New Year’s Day, San Jose, California-based Adobe said in an e-mail.

The company has frozen salaries, trimmed bonuses and variable compensation plans, and curbed travel expenses, Chief Executive Officer Mark Garrett said in an April interview. In December, the company fired about 8 percent of the workforce to help rein in costs during the economic slump.

Second-quarter sales fell 21 percent as customers held off upgrading to the latest version of Adobe’s Creative Suite programs, which account for about 60 percent of revenue. Sales in Europe trailed expectations, the company said on a June 16 conference call.

Adobe advanced 62 cents to $28.62 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have gained 34 percent this year.

Worldwide spending on information-technology products will shrink 9 percent this year as the economy contracts, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Agencies

Why are IITians queuing up for PSU & defense jobs?

Call it an effect of sixth pay commission or recession. For the first time ever, 12 percent of the total recruitment at the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has been from the topnotch IITs of India. Every year, DRDO recruits 500 scientists for all of its 52 labs. This year, 60 of them have been from IITs.

In previous years, all the labs of the organization would manage to recruit one or two engineering graduates from the premier institutes. DRDO human resource officials told Times of India, "After the sixth Pay Commission, the pay, packages and promotion schemes were more streamlined and so was career growth. The scientists no longer have to wait for vacancies to get promotions. Plus, the allotment for awards for the scientists has increased to Rs 2 crore annually, double the allotment last year."

Sources said, "Seeing the economic scenario, IITians have flocked to the defence organization this year."

DRDO mainly recruits employees through a common scientist entry test and through campus recruitment across 40 campuses, IITs, central universities and others. The IITians were primarily recruited through the latter. The tag of IIT does not give any weightage in this recruitment process.

In another trend, 30 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) were also recruited in 2008, of the 150 applicants. Most were to scientist D and E categories, some to science fields and engineering areas of R&D.

The DRDO also has the ROSSA scheme in place now. About 40 scientists, fresh PhD holders, were taken in under the 'registration of students with scholastic aptitudeï' scheme.

Even those who left DRDO for private sector are coming back. About 20 scientists are in line to be placed back.

Agencies & TOI

Technology can pull US out of crisis, says Bill Gates

Technology can pull the United States out of recession and help the world's ailing financial markets work better, Microsoft Corp
Bill Gates Chairman Bill Gates told a high-level business summit at the company he co-founded.

"The drug companies will get back in high productivity mode. The software, IT revolution -- we're just at the start of that," said Gates at Microsoft's annual CEO Summit at the company's campus near Seattle.

"What we can do for education, communication, and what that looks like for the efficiencies of world markets, we are just at the beginning of that."

Gates, who focuses on health and education issues at his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation since giving up his day-to-day role at the world's largest software company last year, made the remarks at the private event.

"The opportunities for innovation are stronger today than ever," Gates told the audience, which included billionaire investor Warren Buffett -- the world's second richest man behind Gates himself -- alongside News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos.

Despite the fact that Microsoft is laying off 5,000 employees, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer also struck an optimistic note, saying the business world is only "coming into halftime" of the Internet revolution.

He downplayed fears that the recession would choke off investment in technology start-ups from venture capital (VC) firms. "The VCs are pulling back," said Ballmer. "The seventh, eighth, and ninth copy of the idea won't get funded today, but most good propositions are still going to get funded. There's plenty of venture capital out there, relative to ideas."

He said research and development spending was also strong. "I don't know anybody in our industry actually who's cutting their R&D budget," said Ballmer. "I know people who are doing a lot of different things, but most people are not slashing their R&D budget."

Microsoft's research chief Craig Mundie said in February the company was not cutting back on its $9 billion R&D budget this fiscal year.

Agencies

No Layoff Of 'Minds' At MindTree

Unlike IT majors TCS, Infosys, and Wipro, MindTree Ltd, a global IT and R&D services company, will not layoff even a single employee (minds), said COO N. S. Parthasarathy.

IT companies are currently among the largest sectors impacted by the global recession resulting in layoffs and salary cuts over the last few months.

Talking to CXOtoday at 'Awaaz', an event of the Amrita School of Business (ASB), Parthasarathy said, "Till date we have not sacked any staff in the history of MindTree despite having seen some impact due to the recession." The recession has hurt MindTree especially during the fourth quarter of the last fiscal. "We have felt the impact of the slowdown in the form of pricing pressure with companies now asking for a price reduction. Also, many companies are now offshoring their jobs to cut costs," said Parthasarathy.

The closest MindTree came to layoffs was in 2001, when the company was only two years old and had a manpower of only 400 employees. "There were 35 non-performers who were listed to be sacked, but our leadership team took the decision of a pay cut rather then layoff then," said Parthasarathy.
Since then the company came out with a policy not to layoff any 'minds', as MindTree terms their staff instead of manpower or employees.

The company has grown over the years and currently has over 8,000 'minds' with the acquisition of Aztecsoft in May 2008.

MindTree is hopeful of seeing the economic slowdown improve during quarter two and three this financial year.

CXOtoday.com

Despite hope of recession easing layoffs rise

American employers are laying off workers at a faster pace despite a few hopeful signs recently that the recession, now the longest
since World War II, could be easing.

The Labor Department on Friday is slated to release a report expected to show that a net total of 654,000 jobs were lost last month. That's more than the population of Baltimore.

If economists are right, it would mark a record four straight months that job losses topped 600,000.

``It's going to be another month of gargantuan jobs losses,'' predicted Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. ``Companies were slashing jobs and not filling vacant positions.''

With employers axing payrolls, the US unemployment rate is expected to jump to 8.5 per cent, from 8.1 per cent in February. If that happens, it would mark the highest jobless rate since late 1983, when the country was recovering from a severe recession that drove unemployment past 10 per cent.

As the recession, which started in December 2007, eats into their sales and profits, companies are laying off workers and resorting to other cost-saving measures. Those include holding down hours, and freezing or cutting pay, to survive the storm.

Looking forward, economists expect monthly job losses continuing for most, if not all of, this year.

However, they are hoping that payroll reductions in the current quarter won't be as deep as the roughly 650,000 average monthly job losses in the January-March period. In the best-case scenario, employment losses in the present quarter would be about half that pace, some economists said. That scenario partly assumes the economy won't be shrinking nearly as much in the present quarter.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the recession could end later this year, setting the stage for a recovery next year, if the government is successful in bolstering the banking system. Banks have been clobbered by the worst housing, credit and financial crises to hit the country since the 1930s.

Even if the recession ends this year, the economy will remain frail, analysts said. Companies will have little appetite to ramp up hiring until they feel the economy is truly out of the woods and any recovery has staying power.

Given that, many economists predict the unemployment rate will hit 10 per cent at the end of this year. The Fed says unemployment will remain elevated into 2011.

Economists say the job market may not get back to normal _ meaning a 5 per cent unemployment rate, until 2013.

``There's going to quite a long haul before you see the jobless rate head down,'' said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services.

To brace the economy, the Fed has slashed a key bank lending rate to an all-time low and has embarked on a series of radical programs to inject billions of dollars into the financial system.

And the Obama administration had launched a multi-pronged strategy to turn the economy around. Its $787 billion stimulus package includes money that will flow to states for public works projects, help them defray budget cuts, extend unemployment benefits and boost food stamp benefits.

The administration also is counting on programs to prop up financial companies and reduce home foreclosures to help turn the economy around.

On the economic front, some glimmers of hope have emerged recently.

Orders placed with US factories actually rose in February, ending a six straight months of declines, the government reported Thursday. Earlier in the week, there was better-than-expected reports on construction spending and pending home sales. And last week a report showed that consumer spending, an engine of the economy, rose in February for the second month in a row, after a half-year of declines.

Still, skittish employers announced more job layoffs this week. 3M Co., the maker of Scotch tape, Post-It Notes and other products, said it's cutting another 1,200 jobs, or 1.5 per cent of its work force, because of the global economic slump. Fewer than half the jobs will be in the US, but include hundreds in its home state of Minnesota. The 1,200 figure includes cuts made earlier in the first quarter.

Elsewhere, healthcare products distributor Cardinal Health Inc. said it would eliminate 1,300 positions, or about 3 per cent of its work force, and semiconductor equipment maker KLA-Tencor Corp. said it will cut about 600 jobs, or 10 per cent of its employees.

Agencies

Are new technologies rescuing Web start-ups?

Web entrepreneurs are increasingly embracing new technologies from "cloud" computing to new computer languages to try and slash costs as investors disappear because of recession.

Investors and entrepreneurs say cloud computing, new and free programming languages, open-source software, and use of the Internet to distribute and publicize products have made starting a company relatively inexpensive and will allow startups to ride out the credit crunch and recession.

"What you're talking about is life or death," said Drew Clark, director of strategy for IBM's venture capital group, speaking to media on the sidelines of a business conference.

Venture capital investment dived 71 percent in January and is not expected to rebound for much of 2009.

"For the best of these companies, this could be the difference. If this had happened three years ago, they'd be gone," Clark said, adding that IBM advocates open source.

One much talked-about innovation is cloud computing using the Web to access programs and data at remote computer centers. That makes costly, long-term capital expenditure and storage unnecessary.

Persistent concerns about the security of data stored on remote servers and the dependability of external systems are offset by its economic advantages, entrepreneurs say.

"In 2005 we needed 10 to 20 times the money we need today. There was a certain amount that entrepreneurial intelligence couldn't get around. Somehow you had to pay that piper," said James Siminoff, chief executive of Grid.com and Simulscribe, which changes phone messages into text.

One hour and $50

A decade ago, Michael Eisenberg, a general partner with Benchmark Capital in Israel, recalls he had to pay $10,000 each for Sun Microsystems servers.

"Today if I want to start up, it takes me one hour and $50 and I can turn on my capacity from Amazon Web Services from anywhere in the world," Eisenberg said.

Some fledgling companies like Delve Networks are capitalizing on that trend, charging clients over $250 a month to host video on their websites. Delve itself owns little more than the personal computers used by its 20 employees.

Time is critical for start-ups because they burn cash every day. Hence the rise of streamlined programming languages such as this year's hit, Ruby.

Ruby is a free, open-source language that Siminoff's chief technology officer, Mark Dillon, said is so concise he can do in three lines of machine code what it took him 25 lines in Java, an older language. That speeds up program revisions.

Corporations have turned to offering free, open source software -- a boon for cash-strapped start-ups. Sun Microsystems, IBM and others give away software to attract developers and gain contracts.

Finally, Internet marketing allows start-ups to publicize their wares at a fraction the cost of more traditional marketing or advertising campaigns.

"There are all these social conventions about companies that assume they are very big expensive things," said Silicon Valley start-up guru Paul Graham, whose "Y Combinator" invests $10,000 to $20,000 into quick, ultra-cheap startups. "It's just not true anymore."

Agencies

US bank rescue plan likely out on Monday

The US government will announce as soon as Monday a long-awaited plan to try to get bad assets off the books of banks, a cornerstone of its efforts to tackle the credit crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Obama administration, battling a deepening recession, is set to adopt a three-pronged approach to ridding the financial system of so-called toxic assets, reports said.

The plan would create an entity, backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, a U.S. banking regulator, to buy and hold loans, the reports said.

It would expand a newly launched Federal Reserve facility -- that lends money to investors to buy securities backed by consumer loans -- to include toxic assets. And it would create new public and privately financed funds to buy such securities under the management of private investment experts.

The Obama administration plans to contribute between $75 billion and $100 billion in new capital to the effort although that amount could be expanded, the Wall Street Journal said.

The Treasury Department and Federal Reserve declined to comment. Sources familiar with the government's thinking have told Reuters details of a plan could be announced next week.

The Bush administration tried without success late last year to set up a mechanism to get bad assets off the balance sheets of commercial banks.

The banks have been hammered by losses incurred by mortgage-related debt that has turned sour amid a fall in house prices and a pickup in defaults, sparking a credit crisis that has strangled the US and global economies.

Obama's Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, has outlined a new proposal to soak up as much as $1 trillion in assets through a public-private program.

But investors have grown increasingly concerned that his efforts are running into problems more than a month after he outlined the plan.

The slow start of the new Federal Reserve consumer lending program this week has been seen as a sign that private capital may shun the toxic-asset plan because of public outrage over large executive bonuses.

Many big private investors are worried they could face tough new rules in US financial rescue programs after Congress pressed ahead with efforts to claw back bonuses paid to executives at failed insurer American International Group.

The Wall Street Journal said the Treasury would match private sector finance for the public-private toxic asset funds on a one-for-one basis in most cases.

Washington would be a co-investor also in the new FDIC troubled loans program but could contribute 80 percent in some cases, and would guarantee as much as $500 billion in loans investments, the newspaper said in its report.

The New York Times said the FDIC program could involve government funding for up to 97 percent of the equity.

It also said the plan is likely to offer generous taxpayer subsidies, in the form of low-interest loans, to coax investors to form partnerships with the government.

Agencies

US axes 651,000 jobs in February; unemployment rate highest in 25 years

US employers axed 651,000 jobs in February, pushing the unemployment rate to its highest in 25 years, as companies buckled under the strain of a recession that is showing no signs of ending, according to a government report.

While that figure was near economists' expectations for a 648,000 drop in non-farm payrolls, January and December job losses were revised sharply higher.

The Labor Department on Friday said the unemployment rate surged to 8.1 percent in February, the highest level since December 1983. That was above market forecasts for a rise to 7.9 from January's 7.6 percent.

January's job cuts were revised to show a steep decline of 655,000, while December's payrolls losses were adjusted to 681,000, the deepest since October 1949. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the economy has purged 4.4 million jobs, with more than half occurring in the last 4 months.

Job losses in February were broad based, with only government, education and health services adding jobs.

"Since the recession began, the rise in unemployment has been concentrated among people who lost jobs, as opposed to job leavers or people joining the labor force," said Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Keith Hall

The manufacturing sector shed 168,000 jobs in February, after eliminating 257,000 positions the prior month. Construction industries bled 104,000 jobs in February after losing 118,000 in January.

The service-providing industry slashed 375,000 positions after shedding 276,000 in January.

Agencies

Has SAP lays off unspecified numbers in India?

The German software giant SAP AG reportedly laid off an unspecified number of employees recently as part of its previously announced plan to trim 3,000 jobs.

The lay offs were confirmed by a company spokesman according to the report. The spokesman said that the cuts were not directed at any one particular discipline or area of our business and were spread across the board.

SAP, which implemented cost savings in October after sales dropped sharply, said it would continue to slash costs and announced that it intended to reduce its workforce to 48,500 by the end of this year from 51,800 now.

The world's biggest maker of business management software gave no target for its key software and software-related sales this year but based its margin forecasts on the assumption that core sales would be flat or 1 percent lower than 2008 sales of 8.62 billion euros.

Co-chief executive Leo Apotheker told Bloomberg television in January that SAP was still seeing demand for software despite the global economic slump and that it intended to avoid forced layoffs. However, seems that approach is not working.

SAP said it expects the staff reductions to result in 300 million to 350 million euros in annual cost savings beginning in 2010 but also in restructuring charges this year in a range of 200-300 million euros.

That would weigh on its 2009 operating margin by 2 percentage points to 3 percentage points, the company said. It forecast an operating margin of 24.5 percent to 25.5 percent versus 28.2 percent last year.

SAP said 2008 operating profit rose 4 percent to 2.84 billion euros ($3.75 billion) and total software and software-related sales gained 14 percent to 8.46 billion euros.

Agencies

Will Common service centres generate 400,000 jobs in India?

The government's common service centre (CSS) initiative will generate around 400,000 direct employment opportunities and as many as indirect jobs in rural India, a top government official said here on Thursday.

"The scheme was likely to generate over 400,000 direct jobs opportunities as well as indirect employment avenues of a like number in rural India," Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar told reporters after inaugurating a conference on 'Common Service Centres: The Change Agents'.

The CSC is a government-run one-stop shop that offers web-enabled e-governance services in rural areas, including various application forms, certificates, and utility payments such as electricity, telephone and water bills.

"The scheme was structured to promote rural entrepreneurship. By creating appropriate support structures that enable demand-driven services as well as capacity building and training, entrepreneurs can be empowered as change agents for rapid socio-economic change in rural India," he said.

Earlier, while inaugurating the conference, Chandrasekhar said inclusive growth and rural empowerment were the major goals of the CSC initiative.

He added that the government would set up 100,000 CSCs across the country under the public-private partnership model by year-end.

Last month, Communications and IT Minister A. Raja had said that the government would invest Rs.57.42 billion (Rs.5,742 crore) for setting up CSCs.

Agencies

India to have more IT professionals than US

Infosys chief and co-founder S Gopalakrishnan has said that the Indian IT industry would tide over the current downturn and may surpass the US in terms of having the largest number of IT professionals in the world in the next three years.

“In the IT revolution, we are at the centre. We are underinvested, but that is an opportunity. A lot of investment is being done in R&D here because of the availability of talent. Our education system provides for that,” Infosys CEO and managing director Gopalakrishnan said.

Last week, India's second-largest software company Infosys said that it will be inducting almost 20,000 engineering graduates this year at over 8.3 per cent higher salary from what was offered last year, even as the company seeks to cope with a lower demand for software services in its top export markets of US and Europe.

According to the company, the offer letters and dates of joining have been sent to the 20,000 freshers (2008-09) and the process of joining the company will start from June this year. Last year, Infosys recruited almost 18,000 (2007-08) engineering graduates.

Agencies

Has IBM resorted to scattered layoffs globally?

Technology giant IBM is resorting to "scattered layoffs" and the total could be nearly 4,600 employees in North America even though the company has reported surprisingly strong quarterly profits in January, a media report says.

"Big companies also routinely carry out scattered layoffs that are small enough to stay under the radar... and IBM is one such company," the New York Times said.

Interestingly, after reporting strong quarterly profits in January, its Chief Executive Samuel J Palmisano in an e-mail message to employees said that while other companies were reducing jobs, his company would not. "Most importantly, we will invest in our people," he wrote.

But the next day, the New York Times said "more than 1,400 employees in IBM's sales and distribution division in the United States and Canada were told their jobs would be eliminated in a month. More cuts followed, and overall, IBM has told about 4,600 North American employees in recent weeks that their jobs are vanishing."

Quoting J Randall MacDonald, IBM's senior vice-president for human resources, the newspaper said "it was routine for the company to lay off some employees while hiring elsewhere".

IBM says it remains the largest high-tech employer in the US, with 1,15,000 workers. But IBM's American employment has declined steadily, down to 29 per cent of its worldwide payroll of 3,98,445 at the end of 2008.

However, experts have a different take on this. According to them, these unannounced cuts raise issues of disclosure and the treatment of workers.

The report cited Harley Shaiken, a labour economist at the University of California, Berkeley, as saying that "the issue becomes all the more pressing in this downward economic spiral."

Meanwhile, as part of a government filing last week, IBM said its workforce in Brazil, Russia, India and China had climbed to 1,13,000. These are markets with faster growth than the United States, and less expensive skilled labour.

"At IBM, the layoffs are coming swiftly, if with less disclosure. The estimate of 4,600 job cuts comes from adding up the itemised headcounts in information packages given to employees in each of the businesses," the report said.

NYT further added, "In its financial statements, IBM does report the cost of severance payments and outplacement counselling for layoffs about USD 400 million annually in the last five years but not head counts."

Meanwhile, IBM workers whose jobs are being eliminated have said the undisclosed cuts, and the timing, seemed to contradict the company's public statements.

Agencies

Is more layoffs planned by TCS at its UK centre?

Just a day after the report of India’s biggest software exporter TCS laying off several employees at its UK office, comes a report that the company has put another 130 employees under scanner.

According to a report in a business daily, the 130 employees are said to be working for its UK-based insurance client Legal and General’s (L&G’s).

In June 2008, TCS signed a five-year agreement with L&G to provide IT managed services. Under this, TCS was to provide application development and support services from the client's premises plus TCS' new delivery centre based in UK.

Earlier reports said that Mumbai-based TCS laid off most of its marketing team in London, plus a large number of professionals in the consulting division. According to sources, the targets were mainly the high-end consultants who are said to be an expensive lot to keep on the bench, and marketing.

Giving reasons for the over 100 layoffs in the UK office, TCS CEO & MD S Ramadorai said that either the contracts of these employees had ended, or can be due to bad performance. He added that going forward in the year, a lot of emphasis will be on employee efficiency.

This week, the IT major also accepted that it may go for further job cuts to tackle global economic downturn. The company also ruled out salary hikes next year.

Ramadorai said, "There would be no hike in salaries in the forthcoming year" and added that "job cuts are possible if the situation worsens".

Adding further that TCS has frozen "lateral intake" he said the company is reviewing variable pay component on employee salaries.

The variable pay component of TCS employees differs between 22 per cent and 35 per cent of his/her gross salary, depending on employee rank, he said.

Variable pay represents eight percent of the total revenue of TCS, whose headcount is 1.3 lakh. Ramadorai said the company is also looking into all aspects of cost reduction, including capex and infrastructure.

Unconfirmed reports also suggest that the company is planning to increase its working hours by 10-15 per cent over the current 40-hour, five-day week cycle.

Agencies

Is Wipro riding on the recovery wave?

The last two quarters were a bitter time for the computer industry in India. However, with a slight recovery seen in sales during January, Wipro Infotech wants to ride on the recovery wave in the notebook segment by launching its new series.

As per IDC reports, notebooks market will see a growth of 12% in India and with this expectation, Wipro has rolled out e.go, its new range of notebooks in India.

Talking to CXOtoday, Anand Sankaran, Chief Exclusive of Wipro Infotech said, “The industry has gone through a rough period during the last two quarters but we are seeing a sign of recovery since January 2009 and expect this trend to continue. We have launched our new range we reach out to the bold new Indian.”

This is Wipro’s second range of notebooks launched and will cater primarily to the Indian market. What more the e.go comes in three models and most unique one is the 7F3800 with a 10 inch ultra portable netbook priced at Rs 19,990 excusive of taxes. It comes in four vibrant colours including chrome red, ocean blue, racer yellow, autumn red and coral blue. “We are setting a new revolution by coming out with a netbook priced sub of Rs 20,000 that more ever comes with such high features,” said Ashok Tripathy, General Manager & Head, Computing Division, Wipro Infotech.

The notebooks have been designed integrating aerodynamics contours with advanced thermo dynamics to ensure perfect harmony of design and function.

The company plans to reach out to the enterprise as well as the consumer segment. “We have seen a negative growth in the enterprise segment but the consumers’ continue to show a positive trend in sales,’ said Sankaran.

Besides the range also comes with all ‘Green’ features that are eco-friendly and have all RoHS complaint features installed that can be recycled without causing any damage to the environment.

In fact, Wipro recorded a 60-70% jump in notebook sales during the last year but due to the present global scenario doesn’t permit similar growth this year, said Sankaran.

Wipro will target the consumers segment by selling its new desktops at Reliance Digital, Next and Pantaloon’s E Zone outlets across the country. “We expect to add more retailers in the coming months,’ said Tripathy.

Wipro has a manufacturing capacity of 1.5 million units from its two units at Pondicherry and at Uttaranchal. However, they did not disclose if the plant is utilizing its full capacity at it two units or not.

Oil near $35 amid grim US economic news

Oil prices rose slightly to above $35 a barrel on Thursday in Asia despite grim U.S. economic news that pointed to a deep recession and weaker crude demand.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery rose 54 cents to $35.18 a barrel by late afternoon in Singapore on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract on Wednesday fell 31 cents to settle at $34.62.

The March contract expires on Friday, and traders switched their focus to the April contract, which rose 62 cents to $38.03.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday confirmed what many investors already suspected _ that the US economy has significantly deteriorated in the last few months.

The Fed said it expects the economy will contract between 0.5 and 1.3 per cent this year. Its previous forecast from November had a 0.2 per cent contraction as the worst case scenario.

The Fed also said the unemployment rate will likely rise to between 8.5 and 8.8 per cent this year, higher than its previous forecast of between 7.1 and 7.6 per cent.

The current global economic slump began in 2007 with a crisis in the US sub-prime mortgage sector, and the housing market continues to buckle under the weight of surging foreclosures.

A report from the Commerce Department on Wednesday said construction of new homes and apartments plunged 16.8 per cent in January from the previous month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 466,000 units, a record low.

``The housing data suggests the recession is even worse than we thought,'' said Christoffer Moltke-Leth, head of sales trading for Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore. ``We need to see the housing market stabilize because consumer sentiment is very much correlated to it.''

Investors are skeptical that a $787 billion stimulus bill signed this week by President Barack Obama will spark a quick recovery. The White House on Wednesday said the government will spend $75 billion to help prevent millions of Americans from losing their homes.

Crude investors are also concerned a jump in oil inventories is reflecting a steep drop-off in demand.

Analysts expect crude stocks will grow by 3.5 million barrels when the Energy Department releases inventory data for the week ended Feb. 13, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. Inventories have risen more than 30 million barrels in the last six weeks.

``Inventories are the focus now,'' said Moltke-Leth. ``If they rise again, it will put more downward pressure on crude.''

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has struggled to bolster prices as output cuts fail to keep up with falling demand.

Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Wednesday the group may cut production again at a meeting on March 15, on top of the reduction of 4.2 million barrels a day announced since September. Ramirez said the 13-member cartel would like prices to rise to $70 a barrel.

``OPEC is looking very weak right now,'' said Moltke-Leth said. ``There's a lot of chatter from them, but the market isn't really listening.''

Moltke-Leth said prices will likely fall to about $32 a barrel, which would test the 10-year average price.

``$32 and a half is a significant line in the sand,'' he said. ``It's a key support level, and I expect the market to test how strong it is.''

In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures rose 0.83 cent to $1.07 a gallon. Heating oil gained 1.71 cents to $1.16 a gallon, while natural gas for March delivery jumped 3.0 cents to $4.24 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, the March Brent contract rose 98 cents to $40.54 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Agencies

Has British jobless rate hit decade high?

Britain's official unemployment rate hit the highest level for about 10 years on Wednesday, as experts warned more job cuts would come as the recession deepens.

Although the figures were not so bad as some experts had expected, falling short of the symbolic two million barrier, analysts warned that the figure could hit 3.5 million by the end of next year as the effects of the slowdown filter through.

Protests fuelled by the rising threat of unemployment -- underlined by almost daily job cut announcements -- have snowballed in recent weeks, including a new power plant walkout on Wednesday following wildcat strikes last week.

The percentage of Britons out of work jumped to 1.97 million or 6.3 percent in the three months to December, a rise of 0.2 percent, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

"For every person who is made unemployed, there is a sadness and sorrow and we will do what we can to help people back to work as quickly as possible," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said after the figures came out.

His official spokesman told reporters: "Every job loss is obviously a matter of regret and disappointment."

Brown met 22 business leaders from some of Britain's biggest companies like supermarket chain Tesco and energy firm Centrica at his Downing Street office Wednesday to discuss getting more people into work.

But some observers warned the picture on unemployment looked set to get worse.

The general secretary of the TUC (Trades Union Congress) Brendan Barber said the situation was a "national emergency", adding: "This is another set of dreadful figures and we fear worse is still to come."

Vicky Redwood, an analyst from research consultancy Capital Economics, said the figures did not fully reflect the effects of a major contraction in the fourth quarter of 2008.

"We still think unemployment will reach 3.5 million by the end of 2010," she added.

Unemployment in Britain is lower than in some other European countries -- Germany, Europe's largest economy, has 8.3 percent unemployment and the figure in France stands at around eight percent.

But the global downturn looks set to hit Britain harder than its European neighbours -- the International Monetary Foundation (IMF) said last month that it would suffer worse than any other developed country.

Official figures last month confirmed that Britain was now in recession, while Brown last week used the word "depression" to describe the situation.

Education Secretary Ed Balls, Brown's former economic advisor and one of his closest allies, said this week Britain was facing the worst recession for 100 years.

New job cuts have hit the headlines almost daily in recent weeks -- carmakers like Bentley, Nissan and Jaguar have announced major cuts along with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is now majority state-owned.

Workers at London Underground were due to stage a demonstration Wednesday against what unions say are plans to cut up to 2,500 jobs on top of 1,000 already announced.

Meanwhile, hundreds of construction staff at the Staythorpe power station in central England walked out Wednesday after being told they faced disciplinary action if they joined a protest over the use of foreign contractors.

Last week, thousands of workers around Britain joined wildcat strikes on the issue.

Wednesday's unemployment figures were calculated using the International Labour Organisation (ILO) measure of unemployment.

Agencies

Japanese electronics major Sharp to layoff 1,500 jobs

Japan's Sharp Corp said that it would eliminate 1,500 domestic jobs as the electronics maker predicted its first-ever operating loss this year due to the recession.

"We have decided not to renew 1,500 contract workers in Japan," Tetsuo Onishi, the company's director for accounting, told a news conference.

"By doing so, we shall build a human resource structure that meets the size of sales," he said. Top managers will also accept pay cuts and forego bonuses, he said.

Agencies

Global crisis to hit China more than India, says ADB

Multilateral lending agency Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Saturday said that the impact of global financial meltdown will be much more on China than India as the Chinese economy is heavily dependent on exports.

"The extent of slowdown in China is much bigger than India because Chinese economy is more dependent on exports than Indian economy," ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said in an interview to a news channel, adding that both China and India were not in recession.

Developing countries will have to restructure their economy and generate domestic demand besides sustaining high growth to avoid poverty, he said.

Even if the global economy recovers from the worst recession, global economic structure will be changed considerably and particularly Asian countries cannot rely on exports, he said.

Emerging economies will slowdown with negative impact on poor and Countries will have to sustain high growth to avoid poverty, Kuroda said.

The global downturn may be deeper and the recovery take longer than earlier expected, he said adding, developing Asia would not have miracle growth and further slowdown this year will be inevitable. However, Indian economy was expected to grow at around 7 per cent.

The Bank plans issuing 9-10 billion dollar bonds in the market this year. "In the next 12 months we can easily raise 9 to 10 billion dollar from capital markets Recently we issued one billion dollar bond and market response was very good", Kuroda said.

ADB yesterday announced stepping up its lending operations by several billion dollars to help Asian nations tide over the crisis.

In addition, the bank would increase the size of trade facilitation programme from $150 million to $1 billion in 2009.

The Manila-based bank facing resource constraint, however, has requested shareholders for an immediate and substantial capital increase for steps to mitigate the severity of the economic crisis in the region.

Agencies