Top IT companies have cut thousands of jobs in past months, reports on headcounts show

NEW DELHI: India’s top information technology (IT) companies, including Wipro, Infosys, and Tata Consultancy Services, have seen their headcounts – number of employees drop – over the past few months. These are some of the top recruiters of engineering students in the country.

The Business Standard reported that tech giant Infosys’ headcount for the financial year 2024 went down by 25,994 employees or 7.6% from the previous year. News reports highlight that the company witnessed a decline in employee headcount on a year-on-year basis for the first time since 2001. The tech giant has also been largely missing from campus placements for the last four quarters and according to the same report, has been hiring in smaller and smaller numbers each quarter.

Similarly for TCS, after 19 years, the company’s headcount fell by 13,249 on a year-on-year basis, reported Business Standard. “TCS reported a downfall in its headcount for the third consecutive quarter, reducing its total employee base to 601,546 at the end of FY24,” reported Business Standard in April.

The total headcount for FY24 stood at 317,240, down 7.6 per cent from 343,234 employees in the previous year. On a quarterly basis too, Infosys added 5,423 fewer employees, a drop for the fifth consecutive quarter,” the report said.

Drop in IT jobs

For companies whose last quarter numbers are not available yet, Q3 figures for the 2023-24 financial year – October to December, 2023 – showed similar trends. Wipro’s total headcount in the third quarter fell by 4,473 to reach 240,234, reported the Financial Express in January, adding that over 12 months, Wipro lost over 21,800 employees.

Cognizant, a American multinational IT services and consulting company, also witnessed a decrease in headcount by 7,600 employees in India, compared to the previous year, reported The Times of India in February.

However, HCLtech was the only company among all the others to report an increase of 3,617 employees for the quarter October and December 2023, reported Money Control in January 2024.