India’s four biggest IT services firms TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies collectively hired over 1 lakh people in the first six months of the Financial Year 2021-22 (FY22). This is double the number of new employees that these companies onboarded in the pre-pandemic Financial Year 2019-20 (FY20) and 13 times of Financial Year 2020-21 (FY21), according to a TOI report.
The big four of India’s IT sector raised their headcount by 102,234 as compared to 53,780 net addition of workers in FY20 and 7,932 in FY21.
The new hiring activity is an indication of skyrocketing demand for IT services with an increased focus on digital transformation. Also, increased demand for talent has led to more attrition leading companies to hire more than before.
TCS which has 5..2 lakh employees worldwide led the hiring momentum with 40,029 new employees in the first half of the fiscal. The attrition rate of the company increased from 8.6% in the first quarter to 11.6% in the September 30-ended quarter.
Infosys hired 19,998 new workers so far in FY22 as compared to 8,142 in FY20. The company reduced its headcount by 2,163 during pandemic-hit FY21.
Shiv Nadar’s HCL Technologies hired 18,657 more professionals during FY22 as compared to 9,158 in FY20 and 2,662 in FY21.
During the first 6 months of FY22, Wipro added 23,650 new members to its overall headcount as compared to 10,027 in FY20 and 2,357 in FY21.
The biggest of the lot by revenues and market capitalisation, TCS, has plans to hire 75,000 more in the year ahead, a new record for the Rajesh Gopinathan-headed company, which is Tata Group’s crown jewel. In an interview with TOI, Gopinathan recalled it was last in 2011-12 that the company was so bullish on hiring activity.
In its earnings resulted posted last week, Infosys raised its revenue guidance for the second time this fiscal. It increased its full year hiring projections from 35,000 to 45,000 in FY22.
“The kind of demand we are seeing is unusually high. The last time we saw this kind of demand goes back to 2010 or so,” said UB Pravin Rao, COO, Infosys.
Wipro, which hired 11,745 employees during the quarter out of which 8,000 were freshers, aims to hire 16,000-17,000 freshers in the current fiscal. It aims to hire 25,000-30,000 freshers next year, according to chief executive Thierry Delaporte.
The big four plan to hire over 160,000 new employees in the year ahead as per new estimates. These 4 companies together employ over 25% of India’s 4.6 million techies.
