Tata Group headcount grew by 8,770 in FY26 over FY25 driven by additions at its new business across digital, electronics, defence tech, and battery manufacturing. Total group headcount as on March 31, 2026 was 1,160,125, as compared to 1,151,353 a year back, according to disclosures in the Tata Sons FY26 annual report.
The group’s contract manufacturing unit Tata Electronics showed the highest workforce growth (31,71%), adding 20,819 employees during the year, taking the total workforce to 86,466 at the end of FY26 (FY25: 65,647).
At the Tata Sons FY26 annual report, Chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Group, N Chandrasekaran said that the chipmaker is now the fourth largest group firm by revenue, and nearly two-thirds of its workforce consists of women.
“We are building not just plants, but an ecosystem: suppliers, talent pipelines, research linkages,” he said.
TCS Reorganisation
The addition of employees at Tata Electronics was offset by a steep decline in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The IT major reduced its workforce by 23,460 employees (3.86%) as it undertook a reorganisation to better align with its goal of becoming an AI-first organisation. TCS accounted of a little over 50% of the group’s total workforce strength at 584,519 employees at the end of FY26. In FY25, TCS accounted for nearly 53% of the total workforce across Tata Group.
As part of the exercise, TCS has guided for a reduction of 12,000 employees. However, the firm later said that it only resulted in 8,000 layoffs. The rest of the reduction is largely attributed to voluntary attrition and reduced backfilling of vacant roles. TCS hired 44,000 freshers in the year, in line with its guidance.
Another new-age business — Tata Digital — also recorded healthy workforce additions. The digital arm of the group added 2,435 employees in FY26, an increase of 6.23% over FY25. The business, which reported a loss of Rs 4,974 crore has been in focus within the Tata ecosystem due to widening losses year-on-year. Chandrasekaran said that the firm has made a decisive shift in strategy regarding Tata Neu, the group’s super-app, which will now focus on financial services and loyalty.
“In the coming year, Tata Neu will double down on financial services, aim to increase payments monthly transacting users by 10x, and expand our ecosystem across lending and insurance,” the chairman said.
Tata Advanced Systems — the defence solutions unit — added 1,734 (21.73%) while Agratas – the battery making unit – added 798 employees as it began building its workforce during the year.
Legacy Business Contraction
In addition to TCS, other legacy businesses within the Tata Group that saw shrinkage in workforce include Tata Steel and Tata Motors.
The steelmaker’s employee count reduced 2.07% (2,435 employees) during the year. Tata Motors demerged into Tata Motors and Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles in FY26. The combined workforce of the two demerged entities was lower by 2,204 (2.35%) when compared to the employee count of Tata Motors (pre-demerger) in FY25.
The outliers in the legacy businesses were the retail businesses under Trent and Titan adding 3,339 employees (11.97%) and 1,701 employees (13.61%) respectively. The hospitality business under Indian Hotels added 6,345 to its headcount, an annual growth of 19.15%.