Indian Startups Can Fire Upto 60,000 Employees In Next Few Months: 6000 Already Fired In Last 5 Months

During the last five months, Indian startups have laid off around 6,000 employees. 

With the way updates are coming in, it appears that the startup firing season will continue for some time, noted by several experts.

More layoffs On The Horizon

Estimating the same, co-founder at Glamyo Health, Archit Garg pegs startup layoffs at 10 times the current number around 60,000.

Saying, “Unfortunately there is more pain in the ecosystem and funding environment could take 6- 9 months to reverse, so chances are that the actual number will be 10 times of this as I expect there will be more negative news which we will hear about in the near future,”.

Victimized Edtech Employees

It appears that the Edtech employees could be the biggest victims as schools will be opening soon. 

The co-founder of HRTech company Incluzon, Naveen Jangir, said, “With the significant crisis brewing in the Indian edtech sector, a lack of clarity in structure and processes comes as a blockage,”.

If we look at the recent numbers,  companies like Ola, Unacademy, Vedantu have laid off over 3,600 employees this year, as per the media reports.

Basically, both low-funded and highly-funded startups would be impacted by this, according to the managing director and cofounder at global tech-recruiter provider iXceed Solutions, Yogita Tulsiani. 

It seems that several  firms who have hired aggressively during the start of the pandemic are now unable to handle it.

Normally, every company has a long term plan. 

But, the unprecedented scenarios such as the events happening now can impact their hiring and team sizes, said Sarbojit Mallick, the co-founder of advanced hiring platform Instahyre. 

Further, the plan would also include consolidation of internal departments, streamlining of operations and tightening of the gaps, he noted. 

Companies Are Hiring Too

According to the co-founder and CEO of menstrual care startup Avni, Sujata Pawar, the startups who fail to manage their runway and carefully grow the business will be subjected to such layoffs.

While talking on the subject, the co-founder and business head at recruitment firm Bridgentech Consulting, Piyush Raj Akhouri, said, “As long as organizations are successful in adapting to the changing market dynamics, retaining talent won’t be much of a hassle. In this new world, with the workforce ready to jump into multiple opportunities, consulting, contractual projects and more, these obstacles will not concern either employers or employees.”.

It is noteworthy here that for every company that is laying off employees there are another 100 who are hiring, said Piyush Bhartiya, co-founder and CEO of AdmitKard — which helps with end-to-end career advisory startups for students studying abroad .

Further adding, “Like I said, some companies are laying off, others like ours are hiring. I do not see that will impact the employment ratios too dramatically,”.