Just as the slump in the real estate sector has brought the business of agents to a near standstill, the slowdown in IT and related areas has sounded alarm bells on the one sector almost completely dependent on the IT boom — head hunters or placement agencies.

With a freeze on hiring in most companies, business for head hunters is down to 20-30 per cent. And they fear that the worst is yet to come.

“Business is down by 80 per cent,” said Vipin Kumar, proprietor of G4 Consultancy who started the company two years ago in response to the huge demand for personnel in all industries.

Today, he hopes to be able to just about break even at the end of each month. “Till early this year, we placed at least 15-20 people every month. For the last two months, it has been down to one or two placements,” said Nitin Taksonde, the company’s HR in-charge.

Geeta Monga, head, MGA Systems, that does placements for IT and engineering services, said the trend started to show six months ago when placement agencies noticed a shift in demand from companies. “Hiring had become very cautious even then. Today the only sector where some movement is still there is insurance. But even there, the demand is only for very niche requirements,” she added.

According to another head hunter, some companies continue to post requirements but are not making recruitments. “They just want to be in the market. Also, we are inundated with calls from people who are being laid off or anticipate that eventuality soon. We are taking in their resumes. But we do not have any offers to place before them,” he said.

... contd.