India’s IT sector is witnessing a sluggish hiring pace. While the latest quarterly numbers are a mixed bag, what’s very prominent is the muted commentary on hiring trend in the IT industry. On Thursday, Infosys announced its Q1 results that missed the market estimates.
Amid revised revenue targets, Infosys has also announced that it will re-analyse the hiring requirements just like other major players in the industry. Though the attrition rate at Infosys eased to 17.3 per cent as compared to 20.9 per cent in March quarter, the future hidings may not be as swift as they used to be.
According to the company’s official records, India’s bellwether lost 7,000 employees and its workforce has been reduced to 3,36,294. Infosys has also gone slow on the appraisal cycle. Traditionally, Infosys staff get their increment letter by this time of the year. However, there has been no communication regarding the appraisal letter.
On Thursday, while announcing the results, Infosys CEO Salil Parekh said that the company is ‘in process of considering’ hike for its staff. But Infosys is not alone. Last week, Tata Consultancy Services also announced its Q1 numbers and the hiring trend showed similar sentiment.
The peer sentiment
As against 821 employees in last quarter, TCS hired only 523 people to its workforce in Q1. According to an ET report, TCS had added over 20,000 people in its workforce during same quarter in 202. TCS CHRO Milind Lakkad says that the company will be hiring 4,000 freshers but there is no clear timeline for that.
Similarly, Wipro, which announced the Q1 results last week reported a slump of 8,812 in total workforce. The company didn’t hire any fresh during Q1, the ET report added. HCL Tech, another player among big tech, has said that senior staff will not be getting any increment this year. The company has said that the decision has been taken after conscious deliberations.