Infosys’ headcount increased by 2,456 in the September quarter, after six consecutive quarters of decline. This comes at a time when the company has started opening up hiring across levels, including freshers. In FY25, Infosys plans to hire around 15,000-20,000 freshers following a year of hiring slump.
The total headcount in Q2 stood at 317,788, down from 328,764 in the year-ago period. The employee count is down 10,976 from the previous year. The attrition rate for the quarter on the last twelve-month basis increased 12.9 percent from 12.7 percent in the June quarter.
“Headcount at the end of the quarter stood at 3,17,000, returning to a positive sequential growth after six quarters of decline, with net additions of 2,500 employees. Utilisation rate including training increased by 60 basis points to 85.9%. LTM attrition for Q2 was up by 20basis points at 12.9%. We are on track to onboard 15,000 to 20,000 freshers in FY25,” the management said during analyst concall.
Infosys leads in women’s workforce participation. According to the Q2 data, Infosys has 39 percent of women employees.
LTIMindtree isn’t far behind. According to CEO Debashish Chatterjee, “Continued deal momentum in key verticals and significant Q2 hiring, including freshers, positions us well as we enter into the latter half of the fiscal year.” The IT firm had a workforce of 84,438 at the end of the quarter, having added 2,504 employees during the period.
Rival Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) added 5,726 employees and HCL Tech lost 780 employees.
HCL Tech added around 2,932 freshers in Q2 and plans to onboard 10,000 freshers in FY25.
Ramachandran Sundararajan, chief people officer, HCL Tech, “There’s a slight drop in headcount this quarter. But on a year-on-year basis after we normalised following the divestiture last quarter, our headcount is still growing. We are continuing with our fresher programmes. The campus programmes are still on. Our plans are generally made for the full year and then we review each quarter based on the demand movements.”
“In to FY26, based on the hiring now, I think the focus will be on specialisation in campuses and we won’t just go by pure numbers. Those plans are getting finalised, it will be done this quarter,” he added.
Read More: Infosys profits up in Q2, records 4.2% rise in revenue to Rs 40,986 crore