Big Tech job openings in India slump significantly amid larger slowdown

In total, 51 lawyers from 21 law firms have appeared in court in the Google cases, including lawyers representing states like Texas and some of Google’s competitors. Facebook, which faces its own antitrust case, has hired a team of lawyers in a similar way.

In line with global trends, growth in job openings at Big Tech companies Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, Google has steadily slowed reflecting a larger economic slowdown, specialist staffing firm Xpheno says.

Xpheno data shows that total active openings at the companies collectively known as FAAMNG are currently below 9,000. The six companies typically have over 40,000 active job openings.

Active openings are jobs that are directly listed by the companies over the previous four weeks for which they are currently accepting applications.

Big Tech companies have announced plans to go slow on hiring amid recession concerns in the US and Europe, and slowing growth elsewhere including India amid quickening inflation, rising interest rates and the Russia-Ukraine war.

“Except for Amazon, which is on a moderate-to-above-moderate level of hiring action, the other enterprises in the cohort are largely in the low-to-below moderate levels,” Xpheno said in a statement to ​Moneycontrol.

Going slow on hiring 

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, has said the social media company will cut back on fresh hiring. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, the parent of Google, said it will go slow on hiring for the rest of the year. Apple and Microsoft are following suit. Netflix has seen multiple rounds of layoffs after it reported a subscriber loss in Q1.

Xpheno said hiring and net employee additions have slowed across a wide range of functions — from core tech to support and operations.

Functions that have seen a decline in hiring include solutions architecture, programme management, embedded systems, product management, business process management, risk management, development operations, tech support, content production, digital media, digital marketing, advertising, integrated marketing and lead generation.

Yeshab Giri, Chief Commercial Officer of Staffing and Randstad Technologies, Randstand India, told Moneycontrol that there is caution in the market because of high inflation and recession concerns.

“There is a trickle-down impact of Big Techs’ business being hit in the US, but that necessarily need not be the main reason. Between second half of last year and the first quarter of this year, hiring went up significantly as more people were also resigning. US employment data shows a huge amount of employment generation happening. There are a lot of mixed signals coming from the US, so companies want to wait and watch,” he said.

Metaverse jobs 

Giri added that at Google, the focus was shifting mostly to engineering technology and similar critical roles, and a number of those roles are being filled in India.

Overall globally, jobs with metaverse in the title were down by 81% between April and June, a recent Bloomberg report said, citing data from Revelio Labs.

The metaverse is a future iteration of the internet that will allow users to work, meet, game and socialize together in 3D spaces.

Revelio Labs said that while there was a spike in Virtual Reality (VR)-related job postings after Facebook rebranded to Meta, it was actually Accenture (1,606)  that had put out the most VR-related job openings since October followed by Meta (539).

Xpheno struck an upbeat note when it came to Metaverse jobs, and as an innovation and integration space for future tech, it has a long-term horizon.

“As the current overall hiring moderation is a reaction to cyclical market dynamics, it has not caused a knee-jerk response in Metaverse hiring action. Big Tech players and startups in the metaverse space remain invested in the space and hiring action hence continues for metaverse talent. Metaverse Hiring action in India remains high with action primarily around the hunt for experienced talent from associated tech domains and skillsets relevant to the Metaverse space,” the company said.

Randstad’s Giri said that in some cases, companies were slowing down on middle to senior-level hiring for metaverse, as they revise growth estimates.

Xpheno data showed that in July, there were 55,000 active job openings related to the metaverse in India, down from 65,000 at the end of March. The dip, it said, was in line with current hiring moderation in play in the startup ecosystem.

The company said that while there was growth across skill buckets relevant to the metaverse, it cannot be fully attributed it. The company said metaverse as mainstream buzz is less than two quarters old, and remains an aspirational breakthrough for most Indian tech enterprises currently.

“Metaverse exclusive hiring action in India is on a growth curve. However the action is around the hunt for experienced talent from associated tech domains and skillsets relevant to the Metaverse space,” said Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno.