While remaining wary of the prevailing global outlook, the IT companies in India may cut down hiring of engineers by around 40 percent year-on-year (YoY) in FY24, as per the media report citing data from TeamLease.
Hiring Remains Flat
The IT companies have added a net headcount of around 280,000 in FY23 so far, the data showed.
According to the Chief executive officer of TeamLease Digital Sunil C, the hiring in Q4 will ‘remain flat’ as attrition and growth visibility have reduced.
Further added, “We expect a 30-40 percent drop based on the current outlook. But this could change six months down the line if companies change their growth forecasts,” Sunil added.
It appears that inflationary pressures, the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and the US and European banking spiral have made the Indian IT industry cautious.
Besides this, the record hiring and attrition numbers in FY22 and H2FY23 have kept costs high.
There is a possibility that this quarter may see negative headcount growth among IT companies as the top eight firms hire less.
The expansion hiring will be ‘dull, if not absent’, said Co-founder Kamal Karanth, Staffing company Xpheno in a media report.
Accenture announced 19,000 job cuts to manage costs last week.
On the other hand, Cognizant added 5,900 jobs and the next two quarters don’t seem optimistic on net job additions.
In the current scenario, there is also less risk of people leaving their jobs and Sunil said that they cannot confirm layoff plans, restructuring may be on the cards, said TeamLease.
Working Off-shore Benefit For India
During such times if uncertainties, International companies’ off-shoring roles to India may be the silver lining.
The backfills and replacement hiring will continue, said AR Ramesh, director – managed services and professional staffing at Adecco India.
The skilled jobs will benefit while non-billable roles are more likely to be axed, said Mrinal Rai, principal analyst at ISG.
