Tech wreck: Job cuts at TCS drag Big 5 IT companies' net hiring to 17 in 9 months

BENGALURU: With just 17 net hires in the first nine months of the 2025-26 financial year, India's top five IT companies eased off the hiring throttle and moved firmly into caution mode. The muted performance marked a sharp contrast to the 17,764 net additions recorded during the same period last year, highlighting how the hiring engine became leaner amid AI-led delivery models. In fact, at some IT companies, recent acquisitions propped up headcount numbers, without which net additions would be flat or even negative.Headcount additions running into just the tens across the top five Indian IT firms continued to be a casualty, raising concerns for students. This reflected deep hiring restraint amid macro uncertainty, pullbacks in discretionary spending, and AI-led productivity pressures, with early signs of a decoupling of headcount growth from revenue. TCS remained the biggest drag on overall numbers, shedding 25,816 employees in the first nine months of the current financial year after it announced that it will cut 2% of its workforce, or over 12,000 employees, largely impacting mid-level and senior executives. Over the same period, Infosys added 13,456, Wipro 9,740, HCLTech 1,885, and Tech Mahindra 752 employees, respectively.

In the Dec quarter alone, the combined headcount of the five Indian IT firms declined by 2,174 employees, with TCS alone seeing a sharp reduction of 11,151. Infosys and Wipro, however, added 5,043 and 6,529 employees, respectively. Phil Fersht, CEO of US-based IT advisory firm HfS Research, said the headline number is stark but reflected a structural shift rather than a cyclical pause. He said there is a fundamental move away from the historic pyramid-led growth model, where headcount expansion powered growth, as three converging forces reshape the IT services industry. Fersht said discretionary spending remained under pressure, with clients sweating existing assets and pushing harder on productivity. "Second, AI and automation are starting to show up in delivery metrics. While AI is not yet driving large-scale revenue acceleration, it is clearly reducing the need for incremental hiring, especially at junior and mid levels. This is where the decoupling between revenue and headcount is becoming visible," he said.

TCS, however, refrained from calling out its 40,000 campus hiring number this year which it did in the past, signalling a more cautious stance on fresher recruitment. Firms such as TCS are actively rebalancing their workforce, with the scale of reductions pointing to internal productivity resets, role consolidation, and a sharper focus on utilisation rather than growth-led hiring. Organic growth across the IT sector remained anemic, with demand recovery uneven, deal ramp-ups slower, and discretionary spending subdued. Margins on large deals continued to face pressure as competitive pricing and higher productivity commitments limited profitability. While global capability centres (GCCs) continued to add talent, hiring was no longer at the same pace as before, with industry experts noting that recruitment is highly selective and skill-specific.

Ray Wang, CEO of US-based Constellation Research, said a combination of exponential AI-driven efficiency and changing client expectations created a low-hire, low-fire environment. "Single-digit growth is not only being cheered but is becoming the new reality. Services firms that have gained the most ground are AI-first, AI-exponential players that are able to exceed $100,000 in revenue per employee with around 25% digital labour. This mega trend has permanently reshaped the services industry landscape," he said.