First there was the good news that BPOs that were coping with an almost 50% employee turnover are now reporting numbers between 20 per cent and 30 per cent. The US financial meltdown had reduced the attrition rate of employees by 5-15 percentage points.

And then there is the not so good news. BPO and IT hiring in the next few quarters is likely to dip because of the unprecedented events. Speaking to newspersons at the IT Women Leadership Summit 2008, Nasscom president Som Mittal said thats the trade body has been talking to IT/BPO and engineering companies and a large number of them are talking of growth, though ‘lesser growth,’ says a report published in the Hindu Business Line.

“Net hiring will continue to happen as there are companies that are growing, and therefore hiring, and companies that are cutting jobs. We have asked companies to talk to one another and hire from each other,” said Mittal.

According to Mittal, Nasscom is conducting a trend analysis, after which it will be possible to project growth trends for the next four quarters. The analysis will take four weeks to complete. Earlier, Nasscom had projected 21-24% growth this year, which is anyways on the lower side.

To cope with this difficult situation, Nasscom is recommending companies to look at unexplored markets for its future growth like Japan, the Nordic and Scandinavian countries. Sectors that would continue to grow and hire are pharma, healthcare, entertainment and media.