During the COVID-19 pandemic, the information technology sector has thrived across the world. Following suit, Pakistan’s IT industry has also seen tremendous growth in its business. The industry is currently in an expansion mode, including aggressive hiring of professionals to meet the local and foreign demand.
The IT industry is rapidly expanding as the local companies received various projects from different markets, including the USA, UK, European Countries, due to the increasing automation in businesses in the wake of COVID-19.
Large and mid-sized companies providing IT and IT-enabled services are looking for professionals in the field of software and Mobile link app development, digital marketing, e-commerce, cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).
Pakistan’s IT industry needs thousands of workers in different fields to meet the demand of the export-based and local projects from a short-term to a medium-term basis, informed Chairman P@SHA, Barkan Syed. The demand for additional human resources is likely to meet long-term projects in the future. However, it depends on various factors, including the performance of the IT companies and the government’s support to facilitate local companies.
As many as 5,000 experienced professionals in the advanced fields such as backend and front end programmers, cloud experts, mobile programmers, etc., could be accommodated immediately in the industry. Whereas more than 5,000 low skilled workers are needed in call centers and the BPO sector, he elaborated.
Recently, the leading service providers of BPO segments had accomplished projects for foreign clients, which were appreciated. Hence, a few long term projects were received by the Pakistan companies, for whom the hiring and training of the fresh people is underway at a handsome pace, he added.
He believed that companies working in sectors like travel have been badly impacted in the recent past. However, the resources from such companies could easily be accommodated in other companies that are growing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
IT industry faced an uncertain period due to the lockdown in the country back in April 2020, fearing retrenchment of sources, including layoffs and pay-cuts. However, major companies and medium-sized software houses bounced back, tapping into the opportunities in local and foreign markets. These companies did not only succeed in securing big business projects but also streamlined their operations based on the work-from-home model to save their expenses.