Infosys BPO, Mphasis keep on hiring

Source: IT Examiner

The top two BPO companies in India, Infosys BPO and Mphasis have rubbished the recent report of Indian BPO industry chopping 2.5 lakh jobs by the first quarter of 2009 which has been creating doubt and uncertainty in the minds of many BPO employees in India.

Speaking to IT Examiner, The Infosys BPO vice-president and HR head, K Raghavendra rubbishing what he called a mere speculation said BPO sector will lose 2.5 lakhs jobs. Commenting on the report, Raghavendra said, “the reports was completely bull and speculative”.

One more relevant article from Market Watch

Microsoft Rumored to be Preparing Large Scale Jobs Cuts

Mini-Microsoft, one of Microsoft's anonymous and wholly unofficial bloggers, has floated the wholly unofficial rumour that the Microsoft might be planning to shed some staff:

The Mini-Microsoft blog is getting and posting a lot of comments purportedly left by Microsoft employees who are being warned/told that job cuts are coming on January 15, 2009. Some of the comments are just things heard on the grapevine, while others are from people specifically told in meetings that they have “four weeks left.” The blog appears to be written by a MSFT employee, and most of the comments are pretty obviously from company employees. If the rumors turn out to be true, Microsoft would be following in the footsteps of Yahoo, who just did a big round of layoffs earlier this month, and Google’s cutbacks of its contractor workforce.

Here is some list of head-count cuts or expected percent cuts so far??

3 in omps

9 in stb

12 in msd

7 in devdiv

18 in UA

5 in MSX

Hexaware announces new organisation structure

Source: Business Standard

IT and BPO services provider Hexaware Technologies, announced a new organisation structure with focus on three major verticals--BFSI, travel and transport, and emerging verticals (manufacturing and healthcare).

“The planned structure will facilitate aggressive account mining, enable us to define and penetrate target accounts better and provide greater value to our customers. We believe it will also foster a more collaborative approach within Hexaware, spurring our accelerated growth in the future,” said P R Chandrasekar, CEO and vice chairman, Hexaware.

BPO, IT companies may have to pay more for 24X7 broadband

Source: The Economic Times

MUMBAI: BPOs, IT firms and enterprise users of Internet should brace up for higher prices of bandwidth if they want capacity that is disruption-proof even in case of disasters like the latest undersea cable cuts in the Mediterranean region.  Possible restoration by Friday.

Operators are mulling increasing prices for offering round-the-clock or restorable leased line services, top industry sources told ET. Leased lines are dedicated circuits which provide permanent Internet connectivity and are heavily used by IT and IT-enabled services industry for voice and data transfer. 

Layoffs in USA - Dec 21st: Update

United Airlines warns of more possible layoffs

CHICAGO - United Airlines has warned its flight attendants union that it may seek to cut 250 more jobs in January, after furloughing 1,550 flight attendants earlier this fall. 

Silicon Storage to layoff 120, or 17 percent of workforce

Silicon Storage Technology, the Sunnyvale maker of flash memory, said it is in the process of cutting 120 employees, or 17 percent of its staff, according to a filing it made Friday. The action is being taken “to streamline the organization going forward” so as to “to reflect changes in anticipated levels of business.”

Galveston planning to cut employee pay

721 workers would be affected; Hurricane Ike, lower tax revenues blamed for projected shortfall

California State Issues Layoffs, Mandatory Unpaid Leave For State Employees

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order mandating all state employees take two days a month of unpaid leave. The Republican governor also ordered a 10-percent workforce reduction for all departments, which could be accomplished through layoffs. The furloughs and layoffs will begin in February and run through 2010, Schwarzenegger said in his executive order.

Polaris Software to invest Rs 350 mn for expansion

CHENNAI: At a time when the domestic software sector is going slow on hiring of personnel and expansion, the city-based Rs 11-billion Polaris Software Lab is taking a contrarian path. The company has decided to construct a new 1,500-seat facility at Siruseri near here with an outlay of Rs 350 million.