While the Indian IT sector saw quite some activity in 2017, with several companies said to have carried out mass layoffs, the year 2018 has been comparatively muted. And now, the industry seems to be showing signs of shrugging off the slump as the hiring in the sector is slowly gaining momentum.
The four players in the Indian IT sector — Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and HCL Technologies — are said to have made a net employee addition of 32,502 employees in Q2 of the FY19. The figure was computed after taking into consideration the number of workers that resigned during the period.
While TCS, which is the largest company in India in terms of market capitalisation, added 10,227 workers in Q2, Infosys hired 7,834 workers in this period that ended September 30, reported Business Today. This is reportedly the highest number of employees that TCS has hired in the last 12 quarters.
Wipro saw the highest hiring in Q2 at 10,687 employees, while HCL is said to have hired 3,754 employees.
The cumulative number of workers hired by the four companies in Q2 is much higher than Q1, which store at 16,502.
The increase in hiring has been attributed to renewed demand in certain industries such as banking, insurance, and financial services, as well as, extremely low workers available for new projects among other things, reported Business Standard.
The Indian IT sector made major headlines in 2017, with the large number of people that were handed pink slips. While many companies said that the numbers weren't that large and some workers were let go on the basis of their performance, it was later speculated that the layoffs could be due to sluggish growth in the sector. It was also said that automation could be another reason as most companies now rely on digital services.
Industry association Nasscom then went on to allay fears of layoffs, but said that the best way for employees to retain their jobs was "re-skill." The body also explained how the world was moving towards automation and digital services and employees will have to "re-skill or perish."
Nasscom chairman Raman Roy also stressed the importance of re-skilling, especially at the time when the industry is embracing new technologies for cost optimisation and better efficiency. "The need for re-skilling talent is a reality that we have to address. To keep up in a fast-evolving technology environment, the IT industry must reinvent itself by re-skilling its employees in new and upcoming technologies," he added.
