Thu. Mar 28th, 2024
Infosys Office

For long, IT sector in India has been regarded as the biggest employer in the organised sector. However, off late, frequent lay-offs have instilled a sense of insecurity and fear in the minds of those involved in these sectors. IT sector in India, which is valued to be INR 10 lakh crores, has been seeing a huge shift in recruitment trends, at least since last 2-3 years.

Talking of the top 6 IT companies in the country, which include Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant and HCL, the combined headcount has decreased by over 4500 in last 6 months (April – September 2017). However, the interesting fact is that the headcount in these companies had increased by over 60,000 in the same period last year. TCS and HCL are the only companies out of the top six, which recruited more professionals than the lay-offs. Cognizant leads the list with over 5000 lay-offs in the said period.

There are a number of factors affecting these trends. The companies have started to automate the work which was earlier done by entry-level employees. Also, companies are now keeping lesser people on the bench compared to before. Companies are hiring more skilled people, who can provide their inputs in more than one department.

By Prithviraj Singh Chauhan

Part time journalist, full-time observer. Editor-in-Chief at The Indian Wire. I cover updates related to business and startups.