Economic slowdown: IBM cuts contract workforce

BANGALORE: One of the largest private sector employers in India, IT services firm IBM is trimming its contract workforce. At least 600-1,000 contract employees have been asked to leave the company since August.

Sources in the recruitment industry and the company attribute this to both economic uncertainty and cyclical reasons.

These contract employees work for IBM, but are on the payrolls of either a recruitment firm or another IT vendor. Two of the biggest providers of contract staff to IBM, who did not wish to be named, confirm this. One of them told ET that IBM had asked few hundreds of contract staffers to leave in August.

This vendor lost 40 such staffers, but this month placed 20 again. An executive at the contract staffing firm attributed this to two factors - project completion and a reduced demand from service clients because of economic pressure globally. Another executive at one of the biggest providers of contract staff for IBM said that the demand for contract staff was down and even from IBM, the demand has dipped 10-15
By
Nikita
PGDM-1st