India’s top 3 IT firms shed over 16K jobs in Q2
BENGALURU, INDIA — India’s top three software services firms — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, and HCL Technologies — reported a net reduction of 16,162 employees during the July-September quarter, reflecting the slowdown in growth faced by the IT industry.
TCS’ headcount declined by 6,333 to 608,985, Infosys’ employee strength reduced by 7,530 to 328,764, while HCL Tech’s total staff count fell by 2,299 to 221,139 in Q2 FY24.
The reduction in hiring by the top three IT firms comes amid moderating attrition rates, cautious client spending, and delays in new tech projects in the country.
Experts said the rush to hire talent well ahead of demand has cooled off as clients cut discretionary IT spending and defer projects in an uncertain macro environment.
‘’The same is evident in subdued topline growth and trimming of guidance. On the positive side, it would also help companies through better utilizations; thereby improving EBIT Margins, which is visible in the results,” said Abans Investment Managers Fund Manager – PMS Kaushik Dani.
However, the IT firms emphasized that they will continue honoring existing offers, training their new employees, and utilizing more new recruits.
“Last year, we hired 50,000 freshers and hired ahead of demand…we still have a significant fresher bench… we are, of course, training them on Gen AI etc, but we still have way to go on utilization, and at the moment are not going to campuses as yet…we will monitor this every quarter looking at our future projections,” said Infosys Chief Financial Office Nilanjan Roy.
