Infosys’ total headcount fell by 3,611 in the fourth quarter of FY23, with the country’s second-largest IT company recording a total of 343,234 employees as of March end. The company did not divulge the hiring plans for FY24, citing a “rich” bench.

As of the end of December quarter, the company had a total employee base of 346,845. However, this is an increase from the 314,015 personnel the company had as of March 31 this year, according to financial data released by Infosys.

As of Q4, the total number of software professionals the Bengaluru-based IT major employed stood at 324,816, a decline of 4,480 from 329,296 personnel it had in the sequential December quarter. This, however, is an increase from 297,859 professionals it employed as of March 2022.

However, the number of personnel Infosys employed in sales and support rose to 18,418 as of the quarter ended March from 17,549 employees recorded in December 2022, it said.

The company’s voluntary attrition for IT services (on last 12-month basis) fell to 20.9% in March quarter from 24.3% recorded in the sequential December quarter. It was at 27.7% in the quarter ended March 2022.

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“Our attrition has continued to decline in each quarter of the year, including in Q4,” Infosys CEO & MD Salil Parekh said.

Infosys, the second-largest IT firm in terms of market share, posted an attrition rate of 27.1% in the quarter ended September 2022 and 28.4% in the three-month period ended June 2022.

On the hiring plans, Infosys did not provide any specific numbers as it has a “rich” bench. Bench in IT industry parlance refers to employees who are not working on any project but remain on the rolls and receive salary.

“We have a very rich bench as we hired over 51,000 personnel last year, and a lot of them on the bench are getting skilled and are getting trained. So, we have quite a leeway for the next few quarters in terms of availability of freshers, and of course, with the agile model of going both college and off campus recruitment, we can turn that up. So, we have no specific number for FY24,” Infosys CFO Nilanjan Roy said.

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The Bengaluru-based IT firm had a target to hire 50,000 freshers in FY23.

Infosys’ percentage of women employees was steady at 39.4% in the March quarter, compared with the December quarter, but was down from 39.6% recorded during the same quarter a year ago.

Earlier in February, Infosys had appointed Shaji Mathew as group head of human resources, effective March 22, 2023. He took over from Krish Shankar who retired on March 21, 2023.