IT Giants Promise Bumper Hiring Spree Despite Q3 Slump: What It Means for Freshers

Indian information technology (IT) services giants promise to hire thousands of new techies in the upcoming financial year 2025-26 (FY26), despite reducing their headcount in the third quarter of FY25.

Collectively, the top five IT services majors in India - Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCLTech, and Tech Mahindra - reduced their headcount by 2,587 between October and December. This followed a significant hiring spree in the September quarter, where the IT majors added over 15,000 new employees.

The Indian IT services sector, a major source of private jobs, has been experiencing a significant slump with thousands of layoffs, furloughs, and resignations in the past few years.  The phenomena even led to some firms not onboarding candidates even after rolling out offer letter.  

Before the September quarter hiring uptick, the top five IT firms had reduced their headcount by approximately 60,000 between April 2023 and June 2024. The net headcount decrease/increase reflects the total number of employees who leave or join a company, including those laid off, resigning, retiring, or terminated for other reasons.

Third Quarter IT Slump

All five IT giants - TCS, Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra - reported single-digit revenue growth in the December quarter of FY24, a period typically considered slow for their business. Only TCS and Infosys saw their operating profits grow by 10.3% and 11.9%, respectively. However, according to Value Research, this growth was largely due to the rupee's depreciation against the dollar.

During the quarter, TCS (5,370), Wipro (1,157), and Tech Mahindra (3,785) reduced their headcount, while only Infosys (5,591) and HCLTech (2,134) added to their workforces. All five companies reported a rise in attrition levels compared to the previous quarter.

TCS attributed the increase in attrition to its decision to "let attrition run its course" and optimize workforce utilization. "We hired more in Q1 and Q2, expecting a faster revival. We also knew Q3 would be seasonally weak, so we tried to optimize by not hiring at the same rate and letting attrition run its course," TCS CEO and MD K Krithivasan said, reported Moneycontrol.

Wipro's CHRO Saurabh Govil attributed the decline in headcount to seasonal slowdown. "We see this getting ironed out in the coming quarter. It was more of a seasonal thing because we purposely onboarded fewer freshers in Q3 than we will in Q4."

At Tech Mahindra, a company-wide restructuring aimed at capacity optimisation led to over 3,700 employees leaving the IT major.

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Reveal of Campus Hiring

Despite some reducing their workforce, recruitment chiefs continue to promise a bumper hiring spree going forward. Infosys plans to hire around 15,000-20,000 freshers in FY26 following a year of hiring slump.

"Broadly, at the scale we operate at today, we still see benefits – with the employee headcount increase. For us, that's a good signal on a net basis, because it shows we are expanding the work we're doing overall. In the medium long-term, different views may develop. But right now, we are positive about employee growth," said Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh during the earnings call.

Meanwhile, crosstown rival Wipro plans to onboard 10,000-12,000 freshers from campuses in FY26 after hiring about 7,000 freshers in the first nine months of FY25, according to company CHRO Saurabh Govil.

Both firms and many others face allegations of delayed onboarding of candidates after 2022, when they rolled out offers to emerging graduates but asked them to wait to join the company. Wipro even gave candidates the option to join at a lower pay than they were earlier offered.

At HCLTech, the firm has reduced its earlier target of recruiting 10,000 freshers in FY25 to 7,000. They have so far hired about 6,000 candidates.

TCS plans to recruit more than 40,000 fresh graduates in the upcoming FY26, even as its CHRO Milind Lakkad said that he expects the firm's headcount to moderate further due to high attrition rates.

"Longer term, we hired a large number of people in FY22 and FY23. We leveraged this workforce over the past three quarters and continue to do so. With disciplined execution, this will result in a negative headcount," Lakkad told CNBC TV18.

He also addressed the issue of low starting salaries offered to freshers in top IT firms.

"We pay based on talent and encourage people to join at different cadres. We offer around Rs 10 lakh for innovators. We hire from NITs and IITs, where we pay significantly more," Lakkad told the channel.

Despite the high cost of living in cities where these IT firms are based, the starting salaries of top firms range from Rs 3 to 4 lakh per annum.

In 2023, Wipro's CHRO stated that the firm hires campus recruits at Rs 3.5 lakh, with everyone starting at the same salary. However, after completing training and clearing assessments, these candidates are onboarded at a higher salary of Rs 6.5 lakh.