Report: IT Employment Decline Moderates in February

After dropping markedly in December (56,000 jobs or 1.4%) and January (46,000 jobs or 1.15%), the decline in IT employment moderated in February dropping by (17,000 jobs or .43%), according to the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses (NACCB), which tracks monthly IT employment.

After peaking in November with over 4 million jobs and dropping the subsequent three months,
IT employment stands at 3,938,800. Despite the drop over the last three months, IT employment
was effectively flat (-.23%) year-over-year, outperforming the general employment marketplace
which shed more than 4 million jobs (-3.02%) over the same time period.

Source: NACCB Report[pdf]

European investors unfazed by “India’s Enron” in IT

According to Reuters: “European investors remain upbeat about India despite an accounting scandal at IT company Satyam Computer Services (SATY.BO) that sent Indian markets tumbling on Wednesday.

Shares in the IT group fell almost 80 percent after founder and chairman Ramalinga Raju admitted inflating the company’s reported cash and bank balances by over 50 billion rupees ($1 billion).

While shaken by what has been dubbed “India’s Enron”, some investors say they will wait for signs of widespread malfeasance among Indian companies before deciding whether to change their investment policy on India.”

• Satyam is the fourth largest of the Indian IT outsourcing firms
• Satyam serves more than a third of the Fortune 500 companies
• Satyam’s clients include multinationals such as Nestlé, General Motors (GM), and General Electric (GE)
• Satyam’s auditor is PricewaterhouseCoopers, who endorsed the company’s accounts

Update: Ramalingam Raju, the chairman of troubled Indian IT outsourcing company Satyam Computer Services, resigned on Jan. 7, 2009, admitting the firm had falsified accounts and assets and inflated its profits over several years.

TC: 13 Employees Laid Off At VoIP Startup Jaxtr

Techcrunch.com: “13 Employees Laid Off At VoIP Startup Jaxtr
Jaxtr, a startup that offers VoIP serivce as well as a social network, has laid off 13 of its employees and has been added to the layoff tracker. As of June 2008 the company had 35 employees (we’ve asked the company for the current count). Update: The company now has 30 full time employees.”

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Rumor: “Layoffs at LucasArts”

Sanstechnstuff.com says: “Though LucasArts has yet to confirm this, multiple sources are indicating that the company has in fact laid-off approximately 50-100 of its employees, including their vice president of Production Development, Peter Hirschmann.”

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Yahoo Layoffs Set for December 10

“Yahoo said that the previously announced layoffs at the Internet giant are set to take effect on December 10.
Yahoo confirmed it would cut it workforce by “at least” 10 percent of its global workforce–or about 1,400 to 1,500–on October 21, as part of its third-quarter earnings call. But it did not give an exact date for the action.”

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