In Pakistan the IT industry is currently the 2nd largest exporter within the country and had shown an interesting growth of 24% over the last eight months. Like every industry though, the great times have come to an abrupt end because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
68% of IT companies in Pakistan are uncertain about retaining their current workforce because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which number could jump to 89% over subsequent six months, consistent with an alarming report published by Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and ITeS (P@SHA).
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The findings come as a part of a report which was published by P@SHA during which it polled over 200 companies with a collective workforce of over 34,000 people.
A significant portion of Pakistan’s IT services depends on BPO companies and Call Centers. With clients putting an interruption on new projects, delaying payments foreseeing income issues, and even canceling current contracts, the longer term looks grim for this segment in Pakistan.
While product-based companies won’t be as badly exposed as services ones, they’re still getting to face delayed payments, reduced account sizes also as unsubscriptions.
According to P@SHA, while exports will recover after the COVID-19 crisis is over, the most important issue is that the loss of talent.
IT talent is already notorious for requiring extensive on-boarding and training before they will start contributing to projects. And with companies already being forced to chop salaries and conduct layoffs, the danger of losing talented people to drain could set back the IT industry by years.
“Pakistan’s IT industry will only sustain itself if companies are ready to retain their employees,” concluded the report.
