India’s largest IT companies -- TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra -- have hired over 60,000 new recruits combined in the latest quarter, compared to 50,000 hires in the previous one. The five major companies account for nearly 33 percent of India’s 4.5 million-strong IT workforce.

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The ramp-up in recruitment is a result of the high demand for IT skills due to the rapid digitisation brought on with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resultant high attrition rates, according to a report by Business Today.

Infosys and Wipro have reported attrition rates of nearly 20 percent in their latest earnings calls, compared to 14 percent and 15.5 percent in the previous quarter, respectively. TCS’s attrition rate was 11.9 percent, up from 8.6 percent in the previous quarter.

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The war over talented personnel has benefitted employees with 3-7 years of experience who have received multiple offers at the same time and managed to increase their salaries by 50-100 percent. As a result, companies have been moving towards hiring freshers who can be rapidly trained and integrated into organisations at much lower salaries.

The companies have committed to hiring 1.6 lakh freshers combined in 2022, higher than previous estimates of 1.2 lakh. The figure is nearly double of the previous year when only 82,000 freshers were hired. TCS alone has committed to hiring a total of 78,000 freshers in FY22.

“This has been a fulfilling quarter in more ways than one. We brought on board a record number of 43,000 fresh graduates in the last six months. Our Shift-Left training strategy has helped us significantly accelerate their deployment. Investing ahead of time in building our own pipeline of talent has helped us overcome supply-side challenges, and meet the execution timelines of our customers’ growth and transformation programs," said Milind Lakkad, chief HR officer, TCS on Friday while announcing financial results for the quarter ending September 30.

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“In order to harness the full potential of the market opportunity, we are expanding our college graduates hiring program to 45,000 for the year. Simultaneously, we continue to strengthen employee value proposition including health and wellness measures, reskilling programs, appropriate compensation interventions and enhanced career growth opportunities,” said UB Pravin Rao, chief operating officer, Infosys.

A recent report by employment agency Michael Page and based on proprietary data for India has also highlighted how recruitment is also up in non-IT sectors like HR and legal, demonstrating the resilience of the Indian job market.

"The current quarter has seen a 14 percent increase in hiring. But looking at the larger picture, we are seeing an increase by over 50 percent growth in job closures as compared to last year. The mega boost is the result of the post-pandemic surge where hiring decisions are being made at a faster pace as there's a portion of backlog hiring that needs to be made up for," Michael Page India Managing Director Nicolas Dumoulin said.

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