MUMBAI: Active hiring from top IT services companies recorded their first rise in the past 20 months, with the total number of open positions accepting applications rising to 82,000 in March from a low of 50,000 in January this year, data from LinkedIn and other top job boards showed.
But on the back of dipping attrition, the collective gross hiring by the top IT services companies fell 4-6% QoQ in the quarter ending March, shows an analysis done for ET by staffing firm Xpheno, based on talent movement patterns in the January-March period. The analysis looked at Wipro, Infosys, TCS, HCL, LTIMindtree, L&T Technology Services, Tech Mahindra and Cognizant. “While gross hiring (attrition refills and fresh hiring) has been low and declining for eight quarters, the current rise in active demand denotes a return of hiring for capacity in the ITS cohort,” said Anil Ethanur, co-founder, Xpheno.
“With the 4-6% drop, the gross hiring volume for the quarter ending March 2024 could emerge as the lowest in more than two fiscal years. But despite the dip in gross hiring, the combined impact of lowered exits, will result in a headcount degrowth that’s lesser compared to previous quarter,” he added.
IT sector consultants said that the conversation for FY25 is still heavily focused on more dilution of the bench, increasing automation, improving efficiency and targeted hiring mostly in niche areas such as AI and GenAI amid continued macroeconomic uncertainty and hardly any signals of demand recovery yet. “From an FY25 talent acquisition perspective, IT services bellwethers will continue to exercise caution as they double down on improving margins. Even as there are green-shoots of recovery in select pockets, overall demand signals are weak and not suggestive of a spending-rebound over the next two quarters,” said Nitin Bhatt, partner & technology sector leader, EY India.
“Clients are still hesitant to release fresh budgets due to the continued macroeconomic uncertainty,” he added.
“Any hiring pick-up will focus majorly on niche skills in areas such as cyber, digital and AI, as end customers partner with tech companies for reducing costs, improving efficiency and enhancing productivity. The headline theme, across the board, is how to leverage tech in order to do more with less,” said Bhatt.
Top roles in demand are mostly in the digital and ‘cloud’ skills domain such as ‘cloud’ architects, SAP technical architects, Kubernetes SMEs, Azure & GCP specialists, Hadoop engineers, full stack engineers etc.
Rishi Jhunjhunwala, senior vice-president, IIFL Securities, said: “Overall there is no material pick-up in demand and FY25 could be more muted than anticipated by the Street, in terms of revenue growth. But hiring may pick up slightly after companies have focused on manpower optimisation, freeze on hiring over the whole of last year. Some positions will open up as companies have managed to increase utilisation and lower attrition.”
Source: The Economic Times