Infosys’ full-year headcount declines for the first time in 23 years, net addition drops by 25,994

Infosys Limited

IT services giant Infosys’ headcount for the financial year 2024 declined by 25,994, for the first time in at least 23 years since 2001.

The total headcount for the FY24 stood at 317,240, this is a 7.5 percent decrease from the previous year’s numbers.

On a quarterly basis too, Infosys added 5,423 fewer employees, a drop for the fifth consecutive quarter.

The attrition rate for Q4 on the last twelve-month basis was down to 12.6 percent, from 12.9 percent in the previous quarter.

Jayesh Sanghrajka, CFO, Infosys said, "Our utilisation rate has improved from 77 percent utilisation including trainees in the beginning of the year. The growth environment was also very different at that point so we had guided differently. We had to realign some of those factors as the growth environment changed. Our utilisation has changed to 82% now. Our attrition has also come down significantly. That’s the reason you see a net headcount reduction."

"We have changed our hiring model significantly. We no more hire all the freshers from campus. We hire less than half of them from campus and more than half of them off campus," he added.

This comes at a time when Infosys has been skipping going for campus hiring for at least the last three quarters, as it looks to monitor utilisation rates and follow a flexi hiring model.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) which reported its Q4 earnings last week, had a similar pattern, It’s headcount too shrunk by 13,249 employees on a YoY basis in FY24, a first in 19 years since it got listed in 2004. Sequentially headcount was down by 1,759 as of the January-March quarter.

Infosys reported its earnings for the fourth quarter ended March 31, on April 18. The company clocked net profit of Rs 7,969 crore for the quarter, beating street estimates. Revenue came in at Rs 37,923 crore for Q4, growing.

The company slashed its revenue growth guidance for FY25 to 1-3 percent from 4-7 percent a year back, amidst uncertain demand conditions. Operating margin range for FY25 has been guided at 20-22 percent.