Bench staff at IT firms rising as Covid-19 causes project delays

In the past three months, there has been at least one percentage increase in staffers on the bench

As a result of an increase in cancellations and deferment of projects because of the Covid-19 pandemic, IT services firms are seeing a rise in their bench staff — those who are unassigned or not working on any billable project.
 

According to human resources experts, there has been at least a 1 percentage point increase in benched staffers in the past three months. Typically, IT firms maintain 7 per cent of their workforce on bench, which has now gone up to 8 per cent now.  “Since there are a lot of project postponements with few new deals, people on the