The Indian IT services sector may see up to five per cent layoffs, amounting to more than one lakh job cuts, over the next six months as companies focus more on cost-cutting due to persisting weakness in global demand, experts say.

Companies may reduce workforce in this fiscal, mostly based on stringent performance criteria, experts added. "We expect the knowledge industry (IT) to see 3-5 per cent non-voluntary exits in the first two quarters of the financial year mainly in senior and middle levels," Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu senior director (management consultancy services) P Thiruvengadam told PTI.