Covid-19 uncertainty to hit IT hiring in the short term

If financial year 2019-20 was bad with regard to net employee hiring by mass recruiters — Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro — the year 2020-21 is going to be even worse with a lot of uncertainty around the Covid-19 crisis affecting recruitment plans, at least during the first half.

Collectively, net employee addition by the three companies dropped by 23 per cent to 49,888 in 2019-20 as against 64,805 in the previous year. TCS’s net addition was 24,179 (29,287); Infosys 14,248 (24,016) and Wipro 11,461 (11,502), according to company data.

The hiring slowdown was prominent in the second half due to delay in project ramp-up as some clients were holding off spending, said Abhishek Singh of research firm Everest Group. Even before the Covid-19 crisis hit, TCS and Infosys had projected lower growth for FY21, he added.