Over 98,000 Indian IT employees fired in 2024 by 337 companies, pressuring employees to leave

Since 2022, the Indian technology sector has faced tumultuous times, marked by significant layoffs across major tech companies such as Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta, which have cut tens of thousands of jobs to reduce costs. 

Now, in 2024, the term 'layoffs' continues to unsettle employees. According to Layoffs.fyi, a staggering 98,834 tech employees were let go by 337 companies in just the first half of 2024, as companies aimed to slash operational costs further. In May alone, 39 companies laid off a total of 9,742 employees, as reported earlier this month by layoffs.fyi.

This significant number of layoffs shows that economic uncertainties continue to impact the technology sector's workforce.

The layoffs has also heightened anxiety among IT employees, who now face not only the threat of overt layoffs but also a subtler, more insidious trend: silent layoffs. The Indian IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) sector has increasingly adopted these silent layoffs, which involve pressuring employees to resign without public acknowledgement. 

The All India IT & ITeS Employees’ Union (AIITEU) disclosed that about 20,000 technology professionals were victims of these unpublicized layoffs in 2023, though the actual numbers are likely much higher.

Silent layoffs often give employees a 30-day period to secure a new position within the company, with failure to do so leading to termination. This approach allows companies to quietly reduce their workforce, sidestepping public scrutiny and avoiding potential backlash.

Silent layoffs are frequently confused with quiet firing, but they differ in their implementation. Silent layoffs typically provide a notice period, allowing employees some time to find new roles. It significantly impact employees, particularly those who are experienced and higher-paid, as companies target them to reduce costs.

Many employees subjected to this process are placed on performance improvement plans (PIPs), where they must quickly prove their competence to avoid termination. This often leads to stress and job insecurity, especially for those unable to secure new roles within the company.

Quiet firing, in contrast, involves diminishing the desirability of employees' roles by overloading them with tasks, assigning them less meaningful work, or issuing poor performance evaluations. These tactics pressure the employee to resign, quietly easing them out of the company.