Source: eWeek
It will not because there has not been a large quantities of technology hiring as there were during the Internet bubble buildup in the late 1990s, according to what Tom Silver, the CMO of the technology jobs' website Dice told CIO.com.
Given that U.S. government data came out today that now shows the recession began a year ago in December of 2007, it seems a little premature to be calling the game when we have not finished 2008 (as much as we'd all love it to be over). Evidently, there are some key indicators that you cannot see when a recession is going on, one of which is that "gross domestic product remained positive until the third quarter this year," according to a Reuters article from today.
Silver told CIO.com that job postings for technology jobs are down across the board about 20 percent, but are particularly bad in regions you'd expect like Silicon Valley. Here are some of the specifics from the CIO.com article including Dice's numbers about technology-heavy regions of the U.S.:
[Silver] says that the number of IT jobs advertised on his site had been holding steady at between 85,000 and 90,000 jobs until the September-October time frame, when the number of ads for IT jobs dipped significantly. "We've seen a drop of roughly 20 percent versus where we were last year," he says. "We're now around 70,000 jobs on the site." The big markets for tech jobs--NYC, Silicon Valley, Chicago and Dallas--are experiencing the most significant declines in IT job opportunities, says Silver. Job opportunities are down 30 percent in Silicon Valley year over year, 25 percent in New York, 24 percent in Dallas and 21 percent in Chicago, according to Dice.com's data.
Given the information I've seen over the last few weeks with IDC cutting its forecasts for nearly everything technology related (in tech services and tech infrastructure), to research Ed Cone of CIO Insight pointed out recently showing corporate IT spending to be a "historic collapse," the economic data on the technology sector is not good, but as Dice's Silver pointed out (with little consolation to those affected), it's better than other industries.
Researcher Paul Carton of ChangeWave sums it up like this in his post on the spending collapse (make sure to look at his charts for the wider historic view):
U.S. corporate IT spending is in the midst of a huge nose-dive, the likes of which hasn't been seen before in a ChangeWave survey dating back to 2001. In short, the current ChangeWave survey findings virtually guarantee that we'll be seeing the technology sector get hammered with pre-announcements before the January earnings season gets underway. I want to believe that 2009 will not be the bubble-bursting of 2001, but I have a feeling, much like Eric Lundquist of CIO Insight, that a big portion of work in technology over the near future will be for systems integrators, contract project management and other programming and business analyst skills that can be outsourced (and not necessarily offshored) using existing or low-cost infrastructure. As Lundquist points out, the CTOs and CIOS of companies he is talking to are dealing with internal customer and financial data issues. These guys need as close to real time numbers for budgets that they can get, and are looking for easier ways to make data consistent, and they need it--like now.
Don't we all.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Airways
Jet proposes 5-10% salary cut for employees
Forward by Srilaxmi
Facing the heat of economic slowdown, the Jet Airways management was on Sunday understood to have suggested a five to ten per cent salary
cut for its employees drawing monthly salary above Rs 75,000 and a voluntary retirement scheme for older staff.
A meeting of the management, presided by Jet Chairman Naresh Goyal at a five-star hotel here, has decided to have a graded salary structure for all employees but kept a threshold for it saying those drawing Rs 75,000 per month would not face any cut in their salary, sources said.
The graded structure would be applicable to those getting above Rs 75,000 per month, they said.
The management is also understood to have set up a committee to study the graded structure.
However, the management was unable to convince its domestic pilots to accept salary cuts ranging from 10 to 20 per cent, sources said.
The airlines management is understood to have suggested a ten per cent slash in pay packets of junior pilots and a 20 per cent cut for senior pilots.
But the pilots suggested that Airlines should do away with the expatriate pilots as they were a “huge burden” on the airlines because of their high salary packages,” a source close to the development told PTI.
The Airlines has currently 1,000 pilots with 200 expat pilots.
A proposal was also mooted to provide Voluntary Retirement Service (VRS) to some of the older employees to cut cost, the source said.
“However, Goyal did not accept the proposal, saying the Airlines did not have money to offer such a package,” the source said.
Facing the heat of economic slowdown, the Jet Airways management was on Sunday understood to have suggested a five to ten per cent salary
cut for its employees drawing monthly salary above Rs 75,000 and a voluntary retirement scheme for older staff.
A meeting of the management, presided by Jet Chairman Naresh Goyal at a five-star hotel here, has decided to have a graded salary structure for all employees but kept a threshold for it saying those drawing Rs 75,000 per month would not face any cut in their salary, sources said.
The graded structure would be applicable to those getting above Rs 75,000 per month, they said.
The management is also understood to have set up a committee to study the graded structure.
However, the management was unable to convince its domestic pilots to accept salary cuts ranging from 10 to 20 per cent, sources said.
The airlines management is understood to have suggested a ten per cent slash in pay packets of junior pilots and a 20 per cent cut for senior pilots.
But the pilots suggested that Airlines should do away with the expatriate pilots as they were a “huge burden” on the airlines because of their high salary packages,” a source close to the development told PTI.
The Airlines has currently 1,000 pilots with 200 expat pilots.
A proposal was also mooted to provide Voluntary Retirement Service (VRS) to some of the older employees to cut cost, the source said.
“However, Goyal did not accept the proposal, saying the Airlines did not have money to offer such a package,” the source said.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Layoffs in USA
November Layoff Stats! - American 86,795
Forward by Ramana
Nov. 17: Citigroup raises the interest rates on its credit cards and cuts 53,000 jobs.
Nov. 14: Computer network builder Sun Microsystems hopes to save $800 million a year with a 6,000-person reduction in workforce.
Nov. 13: United States Steel pink-slips 675 workers (2% of its staff). Stock down 80% from July to November.
Nov. 12: Las Vegas Sands is putting several billion-dollar Macau-based projects on hold. As many as 11,000 workers will be laid off.
Nov. 12: Morgan Stanley announces 2,000 job cuts. This includes a 10% cut in the company’s institutional securities group and a 9% cut in its asset-management group.
Nov. 12: Liberty Media’s home shopping channel QVC announces a 910-worker layoff.
Nov. 12: Cessna Aircraft, a subsidiary of conglomerate Textron , fires 665.
Nov. 10: General Motors lays off 1,900 employees from its powertrain and stamping division. An additional 3,600 assembly employees were already getting pink-slipped.
Nov. 7: Ford Motor cuts 2,600 hourly employees in the U.S.
Nov. 6: Toy producer Mattel announces 1,000 job cuts globally in preparation for a tough holiday season.
Nov. 6: Five-year-old Atlantic City establishment the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa–a joint venture between Boyd Gaming and MGM Mirage –sacks 400 employees.
Nov. 17: Citigroup raises the interest rates on its credit cards and cuts 53,000 jobs.
Nov. 14: Computer network builder Sun Microsystems hopes to save $800 million a year with a 6,000-person reduction in workforce.
Nov. 13: United States Steel pink-slips 675 workers (2% of its staff). Stock down 80% from July to November.
Nov. 12: Las Vegas Sands is putting several billion-dollar Macau-based projects on hold. As many as 11,000 workers will be laid off.
Nov. 12: Morgan Stanley announces 2,000 job cuts. This includes a 10% cut in the company’s institutional securities group and a 9% cut in its asset-management group.
Nov. 12: Liberty Media’s home shopping channel QVC announces a 910-worker layoff.
Nov. 12: Cessna Aircraft, a subsidiary of conglomerate Textron , fires 665.
Nov. 10: General Motors lays off 1,900 employees from its powertrain and stamping division. An additional 3,600 assembly employees were already getting pink-slipped.
Nov. 7: Ford Motor cuts 2,600 hourly employees in the U.S.
Nov. 6: Toy producer Mattel announces 1,000 job cuts globally in preparation for a tough holiday season.
Nov. 6: Five-year-old Atlantic City establishment the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa–a joint venture between Boyd Gaming and MGM Mirage –sacks 400 employees.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Layoffs in USA
Citigroup set to cut 75,000 jobs
Forward by Soni
US bank Citigroup has announced plans for about 53,000 new job cuts, on top of a previously announced 22,000.
Citigroup said the 75,000 job cuts represented a reduction of about 20% of its staff, leaving it with 300,000 jobs worldwide “in the near term”.
The cuts will come from redundancies, the sale of units and natural wastage, the bank said.
Citigroup has lost more than $20bn (£13.6bn) in the past year because of the global financial crisis.
It has posted four straight quarterly losses and some analysts believe the bank will not make a profit again until 2010.
Turnaround plan
Certainly [the job cuts] will fall particularly heavily on London and New York
Win Bischoff, Citigroup chairman
“Underlying business remains strong and revenues have been stable,” the bank said.
Citigroup also said its capital position was “very strong”.
The bank expects its expenses to be down 20% from peak levels, to about $50bn in 2009, after the job cuts have taken effect.
“Certainly [the job cuts] will fall particularly heavily on London and New York,” Citigroup chairman Win Bischoff said at a business forum in Dubai.
Citigroup’s chief executive Vikram Pandit has come under pressure from critics who have doubted his ability to turn around the company and weather the financial crisis.
Shares in Citigroup dropped 4.4% to $9.10 in early trading. They are down almost 70% this year.
Citigroup, one of the largest US banks, is one of nine financial institutions benefiting from the US government’s bail-out programme.
The Treasury announced last month that it would be providing cash injections worth $125bn to be shared between Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street and Merrill Lynch.
US bank Citigroup has announced plans for about 53,000 new job cuts, on top of a previously announced 22,000.
Citigroup said the 75,000 job cuts represented a reduction of about 20% of its staff, leaving it with 300,000 jobs worldwide “in the near term”.
The cuts will come from redundancies, the sale of units and natural wastage, the bank said.
Citigroup has lost more than $20bn (£13.6bn) in the past year because of the global financial crisis.
It has posted four straight quarterly losses and some analysts believe the bank will not make a profit again until 2010.
Turnaround plan
Certainly [the job cuts] will fall particularly heavily on London and New York
Win Bischoff, Citigroup chairman
“Underlying business remains strong and revenues have been stable,” the bank said.
Citigroup also said its capital position was “very strong”.
The bank expects its expenses to be down 20% from peak levels, to about $50bn in 2009, after the job cuts have taken effect.
“Certainly [the job cuts] will fall particularly heavily on London and New York,” Citigroup chairman Win Bischoff said at a business forum in Dubai.
Citigroup’s chief executive Vikram Pandit has come under pressure from critics who have doubted his ability to turn around the company and weather the financial crisis.
Shares in Citigroup dropped 4.4% to $9.10 in early trading. They are down almost 70% this year.
Citigroup, one of the largest US banks, is one of nine financial institutions benefiting from the US government’s bail-out programme.
The Treasury announced last month that it would be providing cash injections worth $125bn to be shared between Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street and Merrill Lynch.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Layoffs in India, Layoffs in USA
News: Sun Microsystems to cut 6,000 jobs
Forwarded by venkat
Sun Microsystems Inc plans to cut as many as 6,000 jobs as the company tries to cope with plunging sales of server computers to financ
ial firms, market-share losses to bigger competitors, and a spiraling stock price.
The reduction, which will eliminate as much as 18 per cent of the staff, will shave $700 million to $800 million from annual expenses, Sun said in an e-mailed statement. The moves will cost as much as $600 million in the next 12 months.
The Santa Clara, California-based company is cutting back in response to “global economic realities,” Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Schwartz said. Sun, the fourth-largest server maker, last month posted its second loss in three quarters and said its financial-services customers were curbing orders until they have more liquidity.
“We see the level of concern spreading around the world,” Schwartz said in a telephone interview. “Customers are saying, `I am in pain, and I need budget relief.”’
He sees that as a chance to spread adoption of Sun’s MySQL open-source database applications and Java programming language, which are free. Sun sells servers and service contracts with the software. To take advantage of the opportunity, Sun said it will reorganise its software business. Rich Green, executive vice president for software, will leave.
Sun, down 77 per cent this year before today, rose 4 cents to $4.12 at 4 pm on the Nasdaq Stock Market. A high-flier in the dot-com era — Sun traded at $257.25 in September 2000 — the stock has been under $5 for two weeks.
Valley hurting
Sun is the third company in Santa Clara, at the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, to cut jobs this week as technology companies cope with the worst sales slump since the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. Applied Materials Inc, the largest maker of chip-production machinery, announced plans to cut 1,800 jobs, and mobile-phone chip builder National Semiconductor Corp said it will shed about 5 per cent of its staff.
The Sun job cuts will take place worldwide, with most of the US positions eliminated in the third fiscal quarter, spokeswoman Kristi Rawlinson
said. The company had about 33,000 employees at the end of September.
Schwartz has spent two years overhauling Sun, which posted five years of losses under former CEO Scott McNealy. The company continues to lose market share in servers, the computers that run corporate networks and account for almost half of revenue. Last quarter Sun had a $1.45 billion expense to write down the value of acquisitions.
No leadership change
“There might be a little disappointment today, not in the numbers, but in that you didn’t get a change in leadership announced along with those job cuts,” said Brent Bracelin, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Oregon.
Five analysts recommend selling Sun shares, four suggest buying them, and 12, including Bracelin, have “hold” ratings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Southeastern Asset Management, based in Memphis, Tennessee, increased its stake to 21 percent of Sun’s outstanding stock last month and said it intended to be more active in corporate governance and management. Relational Investors LLC, run by activist investor Ralph Whitworth, disclosed that it held 5.88 million Sun shares as of June 30.
KKR investment
In January 2007, an investment fund owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co bought $700 million of Sun’s convertible notes. James H Greene Jr, a KKR general partner, has been on Sun’s board since January of this year.
“Sun’s actions announced today, while very difficult for employees, bring the company’s cost structure more in line with its revenue,” Greene
said in a statement released by Sun. “Based on Sun’s enhanced product portfolio, including a broad open-source offering, we have encouraged them to pursue a more focused strategy that builds upon these strengths.”
Worldwide technology spending in 2009 will grow less than predicted, research firm IDC said this week, and computer-related companies are trimming forecasts. Intel Corp slashed $1 billion from its fourth-quarter sales goal two days ago.
Spending industrywide will rise 2.6 per cent next year, down from an estimate of 5.9 per cent, Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC said. Growth in the US will probably slow to 0.9 per cent, less than a quarter the pace IDC forecast in August.
Dire situation
Sales at Sun fell 11 per cent to $1.76 billion in the period ended Sept 28. Server revenue declined 15 per cent, and dropped in every region except for emerging markets.
Sun trails International Business Machines Corp, Hewlett- Packard Co and Dell Inc in servers. In the calendar second quarter, Sun’s share of the $13.8 billion market dropped to 11.8 per cent from 13.4 per cent a year earlier, according to Stamford, Connecticut-based research firm Gartner Inc Sun’s revenue fell in the period, while IBM, Dell and Hewlett-Packard all gained.
The company is struggling to sell its highest-priced servers and many of its recent orders have been for low-end systems, according to Dan Olds, a Gabriel Consulting Group analyst in Beaverton, Oregon.
Louis Miscioscia, a Boston-based analyst at Cowen & Co, said results have been disappointing for seven straight quarters. He compared Sun to a comatose patient.
“You’re hooked up to the machine, everything’s going to keep working because your body is still there, but are you ever going to see that comeback?” he said. “You might be around for 40 more years before you die. That’s the situation.”
Sun Microsystems Inc plans to cut as many as 6,000 jobs as the company tries to cope with plunging sales of server computers to financ
ial firms, market-share losses to bigger competitors, and a spiraling stock price.
The reduction, which will eliminate as much as 18 per cent of the staff, will shave $700 million to $800 million from annual expenses, Sun said in an e-mailed statement. The moves will cost as much as $600 million in the next 12 months.
The Santa Clara, California-based company is cutting back in response to “global economic realities,” Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Schwartz said. Sun, the fourth-largest server maker, last month posted its second loss in three quarters and said its financial-services customers were curbing orders until they have more liquidity.
“We see the level of concern spreading around the world,” Schwartz said in a telephone interview. “Customers are saying, `I am in pain, and I need budget relief.”’
He sees that as a chance to spread adoption of Sun’s MySQL open-source database applications and Java programming language, which are free. Sun sells servers and service contracts with the software. To take advantage of the opportunity, Sun said it will reorganise its software business. Rich Green, executive vice president for software, will leave.
Sun, down 77 per cent this year before today, rose 4 cents to $4.12 at 4 pm on the Nasdaq Stock Market. A high-flier in the dot-com era — Sun traded at $257.25 in September 2000 — the stock has been under $5 for two weeks.
Valley hurting
Sun is the third company in Santa Clara, at the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, to cut jobs this week as technology companies cope with the worst sales slump since the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. Applied Materials Inc, the largest maker of chip-production machinery, announced plans to cut 1,800 jobs, and mobile-phone chip builder National Semiconductor Corp said it will shed about 5 per cent of its staff.
The Sun job cuts will take place worldwide, with most of the US positions eliminated in the third fiscal quarter, spokeswoman Kristi Rawlinson
said. The company had about 33,000 employees at the end of September.
Schwartz has spent two years overhauling Sun, which posted five years of losses under former CEO Scott McNealy. The company continues to lose market share in servers, the computers that run corporate networks and account for almost half of revenue. Last quarter Sun had a $1.45 billion expense to write down the value of acquisitions.
No leadership change
“There might be a little disappointment today, not in the numbers, but in that you didn’t get a change in leadership announced along with those job cuts,” said Brent Bracelin, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Oregon.
Five analysts recommend selling Sun shares, four suggest buying them, and 12, including Bracelin, have “hold” ratings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Southeastern Asset Management, based in Memphis, Tennessee, increased its stake to 21 percent of Sun’s outstanding stock last month and said it intended to be more active in corporate governance and management. Relational Investors LLC, run by activist investor Ralph Whitworth, disclosed that it held 5.88 million Sun shares as of June 30.
KKR investment
In January 2007, an investment fund owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co bought $700 million of Sun’s convertible notes. James H Greene Jr, a KKR general partner, has been on Sun’s board since January of this year.
“Sun’s actions announced today, while very difficult for employees, bring the company’s cost structure more in line with its revenue,” Greene
said in a statement released by Sun. “Based on Sun’s enhanced product portfolio, including a broad open-source offering, we have encouraged them to pursue a more focused strategy that builds upon these strengths.”
Worldwide technology spending in 2009 will grow less than predicted, research firm IDC said this week, and computer-related companies are trimming forecasts. Intel Corp slashed $1 billion from its fourth-quarter sales goal two days ago.
Spending industrywide will rise 2.6 per cent next year, down from an estimate of 5.9 per cent, Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC said. Growth in the US will probably slow to 0.9 per cent, less than a quarter the pace IDC forecast in August.
Dire situation
Sales at Sun fell 11 per cent to $1.76 billion in the period ended Sept 28. Server revenue declined 15 per cent, and dropped in every region except for emerging markets.
Sun trails International Business Machines Corp, Hewlett- Packard Co and Dell Inc in servers. In the calendar second quarter, Sun’s share of the $13.8 billion market dropped to 11.8 per cent from 13.4 per cent a year earlier, according to Stamford, Connecticut-based research firm Gartner Inc Sun’s revenue fell in the period, while IBM, Dell and Hewlett-Packard all gained.
The company is struggling to sell its highest-priced servers and many of its recent orders have been for low-end systems, according to Dan Olds, a Gabriel Consulting Group analyst in Beaverton, Oregon.
Louis Miscioscia, a Boston-based analyst at Cowen & Co, said results have been disappointing for seven straight quarters. He compared Sun to a comatose patient.
“You’re hooked up to the machine, everything’s going to keep working because your body is still there, but are you ever going to see that comeback?” he said. “You might be around for 40 more years before you die. That’s the situation.”
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Layoffs in India
Fidelity National Investments Services sacks 10% of its workforce!
Forward by Srujan
Fidelity National Information Services
(FIS) has given pink slips to over 100 employees at its Chennai operations. This constitutes more
than 10% of its staff in the metro. Though the company, which has been in India
for over a decade, termed the move as ‘rationalisation’, employees are on the edge.
A leading provider of core processing for financial institutions, card issuer and transaction processing, and related information products and outsourcing, FIS has a headcount of over 4,000 employees across India. The sacked staff were unceremoniously escorted out of the office once they handed over their laptops and other official gadgets, sources told ET.
“Employees are on the edge. Those who got fired did not have any clue about it. Nobody knows what criteria was applied…whether it was the CTC parameter or poor performance. A mail was sent to the employees asking them to leave,” sources added.
Chennai operations has more than 1,000 staff. Among those axed, included four in the directorial cadre. An official from the US came specifically for retrenching people. Bangalore and Gurgaon are the next downsizing targets.
Apparently, one more round of this is expected to take place in Chennai next week. After repeated attempts, FIS HR VP Prashant Sharma responded to a mail from ET on Thursday. “FIS India is an integral part of the global enterprise and will play a critical role in the company’s future growth plans.
This is demonstrated by the fact that over the years FIS has introduced new processes and products in India which have created immense opportunities for many employees who have participated in this growth.
FIS Human resource and talent management practices are based on internal as well as client business requirements and these are reviewed periodically to ensure efficient and prudent management. As a result of this review, there has been rationalisation of some staff in our Chennai location only.
While the rationalisation is taking place at Chennai, FIS India is hiring at other locations, which include Gurgaon and Mumbai. In fact despite the trying times that the markets are going through, FIS’s recent 3rd quarter results have been above expectations and we are confident that we will continue to have growth opportunities for our employees in India.”
Fidelity National Information Services
(FIS) has given pink slips to over 100 employees at its Chennai operations. This constitutes more
than 10% of its staff in the metro. Though the company, which has been in India
for over a decade, termed the move as ‘rationalisation’, employees are on the edge.
A leading provider of core processing for financial institutions, card issuer and transaction processing, and related information products and outsourcing, FIS has a headcount of over 4,000 employees across India. The sacked staff were unceremoniously escorted out of the office once they handed over their laptops and other official gadgets, sources told ET.
“Employees are on the edge. Those who got fired did not have any clue about it. Nobody knows what criteria was applied…whether it was the CTC parameter or poor performance. A mail was sent to the employees asking them to leave,” sources added.
Chennai operations has more than 1,000 staff. Among those axed, included four in the directorial cadre. An official from the US came specifically for retrenching people. Bangalore and Gurgaon are the next downsizing targets.
Apparently, one more round of this is expected to take place in Chennai next week. After repeated attempts, FIS HR VP Prashant Sharma responded to a mail from ET on Thursday. “FIS India is an integral part of the global enterprise and will play a critical role in the company’s future growth plans.
This is demonstrated by the fact that over the years FIS has introduced new processes and products in India which have created immense opportunities for many employees who have participated in this growth.
FIS Human resource and talent management practices are based on internal as well as client business requirements and these are reviewed periodically to ensure efficient and prudent management. As a result of this review, there has been rationalisation of some staff in our Chennai location only.
While the rationalisation is taking place at Chennai, FIS India is hiring at other locations, which include Gurgaon and Mumbai. In fact despite the trying times that the markets are going through, FIS’s recent 3rd quarter results have been above expectations and we are confident that we will continue to have growth opportunities for our employees in India.”
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