To be sure, workers took advantage of the explosion by hopping companies, demanding and getting handsome pay jumps. Jadhav has worked in the past for the business process outsourcing firm FirstRing and Dell Financial Services.

But the recent, serial bust-ups in Wall Street and a recessionary US economy has badly hit Indian outsourcing firms. With American companies — their biggest customers — facing an economic dip, outsourcing companies are cutting back and, in turn, choking the job market.

“The scene is really bad and I now realise what my brothers in the United States must be going through,” says Jadhav. Outsourcing to low-cost countries like India has been a controversial cost-saving measure adopted by Western companies, and has been the source of much heart-burn amongst workers because of the lay-offs. During the recent US election campaign, president-elect Barack Obama declared himself against the practice.

None of this makes any sense to Jadhav’s father, an official with a government-owned bank, who reacted, “I cannot believe this can happen”. Jadhav says his father has worked for the bank for 29 years. He expects to continue working there for the next four before retiring.

Despite being pink-slipped, Jadhav himself holds no grudges against his employer of one-and-half years, Dulles, Virigina-based Everest Software, which makes products for small and medium businesses. “If Yahoo, IBM and Microsoft , all big companies with huge cash reserves can lay off, why not smaller companies which lead a month-to-month existence?” asks Jadhav pragmatically.

... contd.