Almost three months after IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) fired 2% of its workforce or roughly 12,000 employees, the company on Friday announced plans to create 5,000 new jobs in the United Kingdom over the next three years.
In an exchange filing, the company said the announcement coincides with the launch of its AI Experience Zone and Design Studio in London. The new centre is part of TCS’s flagship PacePort network and its second such design hub after New York. The company said the new investments reflect its commitment to the UK market and its focus on innovation-led growth.
TCS currently supports over 42,000 jobs in the UK, contributing £3.3 billion to the country’s economy in the last fiscal year, it said in an exchange filing.
Rising attrition rate at TCS
TCS has seen a sharp workforce contraction, with its headcount dropping by nearly 20,000 by the end of Q2 FY26. The company, which had shocked the industry in July by announcing plans to lay off 12,000 employees, reported in a regulatory filing that the restructuring cost Rs 1,135 crore in severance packages for mid-to-senior level staff.
As of September 30, TCS’s total headcount stood at 5,93,314, down from 6,13,069 on June 30, a reduction of 19,755 employees. However, TCS’s newly appointed CHRO Sudeep Kunnumal said on an investor call that the 20,000-strong drop reflects both voluntary and involuntary attrition.
Employee union claims under-reporting of layoffs
Kunnumal added that around 6,000 employees were formally laid off under the restructuring initiative.
However, the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), an IT workers’ union, challenged this figure. The union alleged that the company is under-reporting the actual scale of exits. “Nearly 8,000 employees, more than what TCS admitted, have disappeared from the rolls. For a company of TCS’ scale, such underreporting cannot be dismissed as an error. It points to a deliberate attempt to downplay the scale of retrenchments and mislead regulators, policymakers, and the public,” NITES said.