The U.S is not likely to go ahead with legislative action on immigration reform this year, according to Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar. This will bring major relief to the $118-billion IT industry.
The Obama administration is currently considering executive action instead, which would not require Congressional approval. This executive action will likely look at broader issues of immigration, and, therefore, may not affect the IT industry directly.
“The U.S has gone into election mode [congressional elections] this year. And what’s important to understand is that our issue is very small in the larger issue of immigration that they are looking at,” Mr. Chandrashekhar told this correspondent on Wednesday.
“There are certain things that can only be done by legislative action. So executive may not [have an effect on the IT industry],” he added. The IT industry body’s chief was in Chennai on Wednesday to release a talent trends report on the IT-BPM industry, which points out that hiring and attrition will be up this year.
Close to 1.8 lakh employees will be hired this year in the IT sector, with hiring up by 6 per cent. With attrition creeping up over the last one year, an increase of 100-200 bps, companies will feel the need to spend more to retain employees.
More significantly, Mr. Chandrashekhar pointed out that the IT industry’s strategy of keeping a huge bench strength was no longer a differentiation.
Bench strength is expected to reduce, with more non-traditional channels of recruitment expected to become more popular.
