Head Hunters India, which is an executive search firm has revealed a heavy possibility of potential job cuts in India. The firm has stated that Infosys’ decision of hiring 10,000 citizens of America is basically an attempt of ‘appeasing’ Donald Trump’s administration, which is strictly fastening the rules regarding H-1B visa program to stop its ‘abuse’.
Head Hunters India Founder-Chairman and Managing Director K Lakshmikanth revealed that the local hring process in the U.S. was very costly and Infosys may leave many Indians in peril by creating off shore job cuts in the country.
The decision happens to appear amidst the scenario where top IT firms of India, including TCS and Infosys, create a bias in the allotment of H-1B visa by bagging a lions share of it through the trick of putting extra tickets in the lottery system.
Trump’s administration recently passed an order for tightening the H-1B visa rules for the sake of stopping this ‘abuse’ and to ensure they are given to the ‘most-skilled or highest paid’ petitioners. This decision will affect India’s $150 billion IT industry.
Speaking on the topic of hiring 10,000 Americans, Lakshmikanth said:
[This] can be seen as an act of Infosys to appease Trump’s administration, which could file legal suites against IT companies, including Infosys for ‘misuse’ of H-1B work visas programme.
He also mentioned that Infosys’ decision comes right after Acting Assistant Attorney General of Civil Rights Division Tom Wheeler’s statement that the Justice Department will not resist any case where it sees the employers are misusing the H-1B visa process to discriminate against workers from America.
Lakshmikanth told PTI:
The announcement of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to deter and detect what it described as fraud and abuse of the H-1B work visas is indicative of US government’s intentions to go tough and stringent in approval of H-1B visas this year.
On May 3, Infosys made an announcement that it would hire 10,000 American citizens in the next two years in US, as an effort to compensate its losses from H1-B visa curbs. Trump’s administration welcomed this move with open arms.
In response to a query, Lakshmikanth said:
All said and done, according to me, Infosys will take time to ramp up local hiring as it is very costly. The company needs to pay a minimum of $80,000 (Rs 52 lakh) per year to a skilled American techie.
At the same cost, it may hire as much as four thousand new software engineers in India for its off shore undertakings. Currently, it pays $60,000-65,000 per year for the techies operating in U.S. over the H-1B visa.
The ratio of loss would be crucial in Indian perspective as just by hiring 500 Americans techies, the outcome would be a loss of 2,000 Indians on offshore applications. He added:
Automation and artificial intelligence will reduce hiring by another 30-40%.
