Cognizant’s Q4 headcount down 10,700, says will step up hiring this year

Cognizant

The US-headquartered Cognizant Technology Solutions’ headcount dropped in the December quarter but the IT company expects to add employees in each quarter of 2025.

In Q4, the Teaneck-based firm’s employee count was down 10,700 from the year ago period and 3,300 from the previous quarter.

“As we look forward, we feel that we will add headcount as we need to grow and as we grow during the course of 2025. And that's what is at play and nothing beyond that from that standpoint,” chief financial officer Jatin Dalal said at a press conference after declaring the Q4 result.

The company, which follows January-December  financial year, ended the quarter with around 3,36,800 employees.

Attrition increased by 2.1 percentage points to 15.9 percent on a trailing twelve-month basis. The metric has been rising for the past couple of quarters for almost all Indian IT companies.

“Attrition is a little higher, which is reflective of a slightly better demand environment than it was present a few quarters back. We are able to hire for our group needs,” Dalal said.

The company’s utilisation rate decreased by 2 percentage points to 82 percent in the quarter. The management said its “improvement in utilisation has been fairly robust” throughout 2024.

Dalal said the company remains a magnet for employees.

In October, chief executive officer Ravi Kumar S said the company is witnessing a historic “return of returnees”.

On January 22, Kumar told Moneycontrol that after 13,000 former Cognizant employees rejoined the company in 2024, approximately 10,000 more were waiting to return.

“We've built an extraordinary team. I have 13,000 people who have come back into Cognizant, who left Cognizant. And I have 10,000 more who want to come back. So we are a magnet for leadership,” Kumar S said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Cognizant’s rival and the world’s largest IT company, Accenture, increased its headcount for a third straight quarter in December. On December 19, Accenture reported that its headcount increased by 24,697 employees to 7,99,000 in Q1FY25.

Accenture follows a September-August financial year.

In India, the top five IT services companies — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra — collectively saw their headcount decrease by 2,587 in the third quarter that ended on December 31.

This is a seasonally weak period for the sector, marked by furloughs and tapered hiring.

The development is significant as the September quarter was a strong one in terms of hiring, wherein these companies together reported a net headcount addition of 15,033.

On a nine-month (9MFY25) basis these services exporters added 10,412 employees, marking a cautious revival after shedding over 57,608 employees during the same period of the previous year.

The company beat Street estimates on the revenue front. The Nasdaq-listed IT company's annual guidance for 2025 is in the range of 3.5 percent to 6 percent in constant currency (CC) terms.