India’s top three IT companies – Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and HCLTech – cumulatively registered their headcount drop by 16,162 in Q2 of financial year 2023-24. This is as a result of them battling the demand slowdown by not backfilling most attrition and stepping up utilization of the already hired fresher talent.
According to reports, the trend is likely to play out for other companies as well.
Infosys saw its steepest-ever headcount decline in a quarter at 7,530 employees, TCS witnessed headcount reduction by 6,333, and HCLTech saw a headcount decline of 2,299. These companies said they are not backfilling most attrition, which is in the 14% range on the past 12-month basis for them.
For the September quarter, TCS reported a rise of 8.7% in consolidated net profit at Rs 11,342 crore compared to Rs 10,431 crore for the same period last year.
Infosys, India’s second-largest IT major, recorded a rise of 3.17% in net profit to Rs 6,212 crore as compared to Rs 6,012 crore in the corresponding period last year.
Recently, Emkay Global has released a note, citing Naukri’s JobSpeak Index, said the hiring index for IT-Software/Services has now declined, on a YoY basis, in all nine months of this year. Moderation in demand and uncertainty in the macro environment has resulted in moderation in attrition over the last few quarters, it added.