Layoffs on One Side, Hiring on the Other: What Game Are Sri Lankan Tech/IT Companies Playing?

If you have been following Sri Lanka’s tech industry recently, you may have noticed something that does not quite add up.

On one side, there are layoffs.

Teams are being reduced, contracts are not being renewed, people on the bench are being let go, and even experienced employees sometimes leave under terms such as “restructuring” or “cost optimisation.”

Then you open LinkedIn.

We’re Hiring.

Software Engineers. QA Engineers. DevOps Engineers. Tech Leads. Project Managers.

And sometimes it is not even a new vacancy.

You saw the same job two months ago.

It had 100+ applicants then.

It has been reposted again.

Interviews are happening too, but weeks later the same position is still open.

So the obvious question is:

Are these companies actually hiring, or is there something else going on?

The answer is: sometimes they are genuinely hiring.

And sometimes, there may be a completely different game behind that vacancy.

First, Vacancies Do Not Always Mean a Company Is Growing

Before getting into the darker side, there is one important distinction.

A company can genuinely lay off employees and hire new ones at the same time.

It might lose a project that used 30 developers while winning another project that needs 10 people with completely different skills. Employees resign too, so some vacancies are simply replacements.

Sri Lanka’s own SLASSCOM Employability Skills Survey 2024 makes this distinction between new workforce additions and replacement hires.

So seeing 20 vacancies does not necessarily mean the company is adding 20 people to its total workforce.

But that explanation does not tell the whole story.

Because there is another category of vacancies: Ghost Jobs.

Ghost Jobs: The Vacancy Exists, but the Job May Not

A Ghost Job is a position that is publicly advertised even though the employer is not actively planning to fill it now — or, in some cases, has no real intention of hiring anyone for it.

The vacancy is live.

You can apply.

A recruiter can call you.

You can even go through interviews.

But there may be no immediate job waiting at the end.

This is not just something frustrated job seekers invented.

According to Greenhouse’s 2024 State of Job Hunting report, 18%–22% of jobs posted on the Greenhouse platform in a typical quarter were classified as Ghost Jobs.

That does not mean 20% of Sri Lankan IT jobs are fake. The Greenhouse research is not Sri Lanka-specific, and we do not currently have reliable public data showing the Ghost Job rate in Sri Lanka.

But the practice itself is real.

Even getting an interview does not guarantee that the vacancy is genuine.

A ResumeBuilder survey of 1,641 hiring managers found that 40% said their companies had posted fake job listings during the previous year. Among companies that contacted applicants for those fake listings, 85% said candidates were interviewed.

These are self-reported international survey results, not Sri Lankan statistics. But they show why candidates should not automatically assume:

Interview = Approved Job.

So Why Would a Company Advertise a Job It Isn’t Really Filling?

There are several reasons, and some are much more questionable than others.

1. To Look Like the Company Is Growing

A careers page with 20 open positions sends a strong message.

“This company is expanding.”

Weekly “We’re Hiring” posts create the same impression for employees, competitors, clients, potential candidates and anyone else watching the business.

In the ResumeBuilder research, 66% of respondents whose companies used fake listings said making the company appear to be growing was one reason.

That does not prove companies are deliberately deceiving investors. That would be a much stronger accusation.

But it does show that visible hiring activity can be useful for a company’s image even when some of those jobs are not immediate hires.

2. To Tell Overworked Employees That “Help Is Coming”

Imagine a team of eight people.

Three resign.

The remaining five now handle most of the workload.

They complain.

Management says:

“We know. We’re actively hiring.”

And there are vacancies online to prove it.

Employees may tolerate the extra workload because they believe another developer or two will join soon.

Except three months later, nobody has joined.

The ResumeBuilder survey found that 63% of employers that had posted fake jobs said one reason was to make existing employees believe their workload would eventually be reduced by new hires.

Sometimes simply convincing a team that “help is coming” can buy management time.

3. To Make Current Employees Feel Replaceable

There is another, more uncomfortable psychological effect.

Imagine asking for a large salary increase while your company continuously advertises positions similar to yours.

Those vacancies have hundreds of applicants.

The message you receive is obvious:

“If I leave, maybe they can easily replace me.”

In the same survey, 62% of respondents whose companies had used fake listings said making employees feel replaceable was one of the reasons.

During a weak job market or a period of layoffs, that can shift bargaining power heavily towards the employer.

Sometimes the Goal Is Not Hiring You Now — It Is Collecting You for Later

Another common reason is building a talent pipeline.

A Sri Lankan software company may expect a new .NET project in three months.

The contract is not signed yet.

Instead of waiting, it advertises .NET vacancies now.

300 people apply.

Their CVs enter the recruitment database.

If the project goes ahead, recruiters already have candidates ready.

From the company’s perspective, that makes perfect sense.

But from the applicant’s perspective there is a major difference.

You thought you were applying for:

“We need a .NET Developer now.”

What the company really meant might have been:

“We might need a .NET Developer later.”

There is nothing wrong with building a future talent pool if the advertisement clearly says Future Opportunities, Talent Pool, or something similar.

The problem comes when a future possibility is presented as an immediate vacancy.

Then There Is the “Perfect Candidate for the Perfect Price” Problem

Not every vacancy that stays open for six months is fake.

Sometimes the company genuinely wants to hire someone.

The problem is what they are looking for.

You have probably seen IT job descriptions like this:

• React
• Angular
• Node.js
• PHP
• Java
• AWS
• Azure
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• CI/CD
• DevOps
• Security
• AI
• Team leadership
• Client communication

Then the salary budget looks more like a normal mid-level position.

Recruiters sometimes call an exceptionally rare candidate who perfectly matches a huge list of requirements a “Purple Squirrel.”

What happens?

Candidate A is technically excellent.

Salary too high.

Candidate B matches 80% of the requirements.

Not the right fit.

Candidate C has years of experience but does not know one specific technology.

Rejected.

Six months later?

The vacancy is still on LinkedIn.

From outside, the company looks like it is continuously hiring.

In reality, it may simply be waiting for someone who is unusually skilled and unusually cheap.

And Yes, Sometimes Cost Is the Real Reason

There is another possibility we should not pretend does not exist.

A company can reduce expensive employees and later hire people into similar roles at lower salaries.

For example, imagine an experienced engineer earning Rs. 600,000 per month.

After layoffs across the market, suddenly there are many strong developers looking for work. Some may be willing to accept Rs. 450,000 or Rs. 500,000 for a similar position because they have fewer alternatives.

From a pure cost perspective, replacing part of a highly paid workforce at the new market rate can save a company a significant amount of money.

This does not mean every layoff in Sri Lankan IT is secretly a salary-reduction strategy.

Project losses, performance issues, restructuring, automation, AI and genuine changes in skill requirements are all real reasons too.

But when the supply of available developers increases, companies gain negotiating power.

And businesses absolutely notice when the same level of talent becomes available for less money.

So when a company announces layoffs and then starts advertising similar positions again at different salary levels, candidates are justified in asking questions.

Vacancies Can Also Be Used to Test the Market

Suppose management is considering hiring a DevOps Engineer but has not finalised the budget.

They want to know:

How many good candidates are available?

What salaries are they expecting?

Can they find AWS + Kubernetes experience?

Would Rs. 400,000 attract anyone good?

Do senior candidates expect remote work?

One easy way to find out is to advertise the job.

Applications arrive.

Recruiters speak with candidates.

Salary expectations are collected.

The company learns what the market looks like.

Actual hiring?

Maybe. Maybe later. Maybe never.

For the candidate it was a Job Opportunity.

For the company it may partly have been Market Intelligence.

And Sometimes Nobody Is Playing a Game — The Job Is Just Dead

Not every suspicious vacancy is deliberately misleading.

A client can delay a project.

A budget can be frozen.

Management can pause hiring.

The hiring manager can leave.

The position may already have been filled.

But the advertisement remains online or gets automatically redistributed by an Applicant Tracking System.

Clarify Capital’s 2025 Ghost Jobs research found that nearly one in five surveyed employers said they used AI to automate job postings for roles that were currently inactive. Tech was also among the industries with the most openings not being pursued for immediate filling.

So even “Posted recently” or “Reposted” does not always mean an HR team is urgently trying to hire someone today.

How Do You Know Whether a Job Is Real?

You cannot know with 100% certainty.

But there are warning signs:

• The exact same vacancy keeps being reposted for months.
• It appears on LinkedIn but not on the company’s official Careers page.
• The company has been “urgently hiring” for the same position for six months.
• The Job Description is extremely vague.
• Nobody can clearly explain which team or project you would join.
• Requirements are enormous while the salary appears unusually low.
• The recruiter cannot explain whether this is a new role or replacement.
• There is no clear hiring timeline.

And during the first interview, ask three useful questions:

“Is the headcount for this position already approved?”

“Is this a new position or a replacement?”

“When do you expect the selected candidate to start?”

A recruiter may not know every detail.

But if every answer is vague, that tells you something too.

The Real Problem Is That the Company Knows Everything and the Candidate Knows Almost Nothing

The company knows whether:

The budget is approved.

The project is confirmed.

There is already an internal candidate.

The role is an immediate hire.

They are only collecting CVs.

The position may disappear next week.

The candidate usually knows none of this.

All they see is:

We’re Hiring.

But applying is not free.

You update your CV.

Research the company.

Prepare for interviews.

Take leave from your current job.

Do technical assignments.

Spend hours going through multiple interview rounds.

That is why Ghost Jobs and misleading vacancies matter.

They waste real people’s time.

So What Exactly Is the Game?

There is no single game, and certainly not every Sri Lankan IT company is doing something dishonest.

Some layoffs and new hiring are completely legitimate.

But a vacancy can also exist because a company wants to:

• look like it is growing,
• reassure an overloaded team,
• make employees feel replaceable,
• build a CV database for future projects,
• test salaries and available talent,
• find a highly skilled candidate willing to accept a lower salary,
• replace higher-cost talent with people available at a new market rate,
• or simply keep an inactive position circulating through recruitment systems.

And sometimes, there may be no real intention to hire at all.

So when you see “200+ applicants” on LinkedIn, don’t immediately panic.

And when you get rejected, don’t automatically assume 200 people were better than you.

Maybe someone else genuinely got the job.

Maybe your skills were not a match.

But maybe the company was never ready to hire anyone in the first place.

Because in today’s hiring market, sometimes you did not lose the race.

There was never a race to begin with.