India’s Leading Tech Firms See a Significant Drop in Net Hiring in FY23

The United States experienced a banking crisis and weak global macroeconomic conditions, resulting in a significant decline in employment hiring by the country’s four leading IT firms – TCS, Infosys, HCL Technologies, and Wipro. In FY23, these firms hired 66% fewer employees than the previous year, with a total of 82,679 hires compared to 243,258 in FY22. According to analysts, the current state of the talent market is similar to pre-pandemic levels, with FY23 figures more closely resembling those of FY21 when net additions were 86,685 employees.

In FY23, TCS experienced the most significant reduction in recruitment, with a decline of 78%, while Wipro saw a decline of 70%. On a year-on-year basis, HCL Tech and Infosys had a decline in net addition of 57.2% and 46.3%, respectively.

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Despite a drop in attrition rates, all major Indian IT companies experienced a decline in hiring during the January-March quarter. For example, TCS saw its attrition rate drop to 20.1% from 21.3% but also experienced a 78% decline in hiring. Similarly, Infosys, HCL Tech, and Wipro saw a drop in attrition rates but also a decline in net addition.

The declining attrition rate in Indian IT companies indicates that they have headroom to grow without needing aggressive hiring, despite a drop in net addition. TCS’s chief HR officer, Milind Lakkad, stated that TCS’s attrition rate dropped by 4.2% from the previous quarter and is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels in the second half of 2023.

In the January-March quarter, TCS added only 821 employees, a significant drop from the preceding quarter when the company witnessed a net reduction of 2,197 employees. On the other hand, Infosys added 29,219 employees in FY23, a decline of 46.3% from the previous year when the net addition was 54,396 employees. Furthermore, Infosys’ total employee headcount decreased to 343,234 at the end of March quarter from 346,845 in the December quarter.

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HCL Tech witnessed a decline in net employee addition from 39,900 in FY22 to 17,067 in FY23, resulting in a drop of 57.2%. The company’s total employee headcount at the end of FY23 was 225,944.

The decline in net addition of employees in Indian IT companies in FY23 resulted in an increase in revenue per employee. TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech, and Wipro all witnessed a rise in revenue per employee in FY23 compared to FY22. TCS’s revenue per employee increased to Rs 36.6 lakh, Infosys’s to Rs 42.7 lakh, HCL Tech’s to Rs 44.9 lakh, and Wipro’s to Rs 35.2 lakh.