The tech industry and its employment market before and addressed various aspects of it—the coveted “H1-B” visa for foreign (read largely Indian) workers in the United States, the Indian labour market, and the erosion of various areas of the computer programming profession by relentless automation of older technologies

After lacklustre results from India’s major information technology (IT) majors such as HCL, Infosys, Wipro and TCS, the Financial Express reported on October 15 that Infosys, which hired more than 50,000 freshers last year, has made it clear that it will not be conducting campus recruitment this time. In addition, according to this newspaper, leading IT companies reported a notable decline in their employee numbers, totaling a significant reduction of 15,800 employees on a cumulative basis

Meanwhile, the US is on a different trajectory—possibly far worse than anything that we are seeing in India. According to a site that tracks the reductions in force at tech companies, over 400,000 workers were laid off in 2022 and 2023 (layoffs.fyi).

After the cuts began, tech job-seekers there are still facing a tough market, fighting for a smaller number of spots in a job sector that was considered bulletproof. And for Indian techies on H1-B visas in the US, the promise of living in the land of milk and honey, at least for a while.