The 24 top Indian unicorns currently directly employ a total of over 2.4 lakh white-collar people. The survey is based on data from popular job boards used by recruiting and staffing companies put together by specialist staffing firm Xpheno.
A year ago, the active job seeking talent from these groups of companies was under 25,000. The majority (85%) of the jobseekers are those still in active employment, while the remaining 15% are serving notice.
“The adversities around investments and tightening discretionary spend has put talent on the edge, thus shaking up employee stickiness to enterprise,” said Kamal Karanth, cofounder of Xpheno.
“Top 12 profitable unicorns have better stickiness, with only 18% employees active in the job market, while the top 12 by headcount numbers have 36% employees out on job hunts,” said Karanth, citing the survey findings. “Being a large unicorn does not necessarily improve employee stickiness and retention.”
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Amit Nawka, partner, deals and startups, PwC, said, “Many who have been laid off at startups in recent times are not necessarily low performers, but they lost their jobs because their employers discontinued certain businesses, or the organisations have reprioritised their efforts based on the current funding environment, leading to many roles becoming redundant. As a result, many even from the large startups are on a job hunt.”
Layoffs Give Jitters
Industry insiders said rising job insecurity and murmurs of more layoffs if funding environment does not improve are making talent even from large startups jittery, with many seeking employment opportunities outside the industry.
“People are extremely nervous even in large and promising startups, as the stability of the entire ecosystem is questioned,” said a top industry official, who did not wish to be identified.
“Generally, the startup/unicorn ecosystem employees easily get to know if the pulse of the organisation is looking positive or not. Right now, people are wary in the market that there could be more layoffs if the funding does not improve, prompting many to actively look out for relatively stable sectors,” the person said.
Ten of the 24 unicorns surveyed have laid off people over the last few quarters. Collectively, these unicorns have globally laid off nearly 8,000 employees since 2022. These 24 top unicorns have hired over 70,000 people over the last 12 months to handle attrition and register a 11% net headcount growth.