Recession - Counting on Traditional Jobs

What is in store for India in the recessionary scenario? Is cap on H1-B Visa really going to impact the Indian services industry or the Indian employers were already planning to cut down on the onsite staff to reduce the costs. Is the condition that each company getting the bailout money cannot outsource the work to developing nations and has to hire Americans, affect the outsourcing.

Never before students in IITs and IIMs faced difficulty in getting a job? (A job !!! they had plenty to choose from). Young fresh graduates are seeing 15-20% drop in the salaries being offered as compared to that of last year. Is there anyopportunity here for the true Indian employers. With the soaring pay packages offered at these campus till last year, manufacturing and engineering giants in India could not get the quality engineers/managers. I remember that a CEO of one of the leading engineering and construction firm had stated in an interview that India do not have sufficient engineers for engineering jobs and people are running behind KPOs and MNCs.

This time we are seeing PSUs are the most valuable recruiters at the campuses. Simple reasons, their ability to pay on a continuous basis and guarantee of business. Is it a good time for Indian employers or it’s just a temporary phase? Will India Inc. be able to retain the talent that is coming its way because it cannot go elsewhere? Will the revival in global economy (really do not know when this will happen) lead to people going back to the glamorous jobs?

Many people do not change job frequently. Fresh graduates are sometime not sure what they want to do, they take up the first job that comes their way. There might be some people who may not have joined the conventional job roles in manufacturing/engineering firms if the economy was good, but they have joined now. May be some of the people will find the job interesting enough to stay on. May be some of the people will get fast track promotion to reach at the designation where they feel they have all the challenges and satisfaction to justify their continuance with the company.

Is it a right time for industries to redesign some of the entry level jobs, making it more interesting and more challenging and hence a better learning experience that can result fresh recruits sticking with the organization. Can the competitiveness of Indian industry improve because of the easy availability of rich talent in the country to an extent that the traditional businesses are able to survive the bad times?

Or is it a farfetched conclusion by someone who is too optimistic about the future scenario and believes that India has seen it's bottom?