India’s biggest IT services majors including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra together added 4,295 employees in the first quarter ended June 30, 2025. This is nearly double of what these companies hired in the previous quarter, though it’s still a muted net addition going by the industry’s peak hiring trends.
The catch is that only two out of the top five IT services exporters have added to the tally, and within that, only TCS contributed in four digits.
On a year-on-year basis, the addition is significantly higher number as all the five companies combined had reported a decline of 2,074 employees in Q1FY25.
At present, the IT industry is at an inflection point as the companies navigate their hiring strategy amid AI disruption and the ongoing macroeconomic challenges.
As of Q1, only TCS and Infosys reported a positive net headcount addition, as its employee base grew by 5,090 and 210 sequentially, respectively. HCLTech and Wipro saw marginal plunges of 269 and 114 employees. Tech Mahindra lost around 622 employees and LTIMindtree’s headcount decreased by 418 employees.
Interestingly, while the companies across board have reported strong deal wins, their hiring outlook has been far from catching up. IT firms are more focused on rising operating margins through improving utilisation rates, delaying wage hikes and rethinking fresher hiring strategies.
Like Milind Lakkad, chief HR officer of TCS said at the company’s Q1 earning conference, “Hiring shouldn’t be connected to quarterly growth. It is planned on a yearly basis.”
“We had earlier hired during initial quarters then we faced some business challenges. That had caused some imbalance, but we are not that bothered as we will leverage this going forward,” he added.
Meanwhile, HCLTech said that the talent ramp down in Q1 was in fact planned as it looks to restructure its operations globally. The "talent ramp down" would focus on geographies outside India and be accompanied by the optimisation of underutilised facilities, many of which were inherited from past acquisitions.
“There will be some talent ramp down that has happened, especially in some of the geographies outside India. So that will also be part of the restructuring plan. More details we will share once we have a concrete timeline and plan agreed,” HCLTech CEO and MD C Vijayakumar said.
The restructuring will occur in phases across the second and third quarters, with some impact extending into the fourth quarter.
Fresher hiring sees AI twist
TCS didn’t disclose its Q1 fresher addition, but plans to add over 40,000-42,000 in FY26.
HCLTech added about 1,984 freshers in Q1, Wipro didn’t share fresher addition numbers, Tech Mahindra saw a marginal increase of 250 freshers going by the demand scenario.
LTIMindtree has added around 1,600 freshers in Q1 and according to media reports, will be adding a total of 5,000 in FY26.
Rohit Anand, CFO at Tech Mahindra said, “We'd hired close to 6,000 last year. So, we are working through the learning development platform absorption of that pool, right, within the ecosystem. So, that's the focus right now. And as we continue to drive more visibility and progress through the macro through the year, we'll drive that action more.”
“As Mohit (Tech Mahindra CEO Mohit Joshi) mentioned, there's a new dynamic around how we look at our employee base collectively from an AI perspective as well, which is an advantage for us given the experience profile we have. So, we'll be evaluating that in a mix of AI, but generally we will hire more as we progress towards the year,” Anand added.
Wipro CEO Srini Pallia, however, had a contrarian view. He said, “There is no strong correlation to the industry yet in terms of AI (adversely impacting) hiring, it (AI) will continue to evolve as we move forward.”
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