Headcount at IT cos sees 1st fall in 25 yrs

livemint.com:

MUMBAI, BENAGLURU : Nine of India’s top 10 software services firms, employing more than 2 million engineers, have seen their workforce shrink in the six months to 30 September, the first time in more than 25 years, as clients in the US and Europe cut spending amid rising economic and geopolitical risks. With the six months to March typically softer for IT companies than the first half because of fewer working days, the year ending 31 March may mark the first instance of Indian IT companies ending the year with fewer employees than at the beginning of the fiscal year, according to industry executives and staffing firms.

A Mint analysis showed that the 10 largest companies, including giants such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Infosys Ltd, along with smaller firms such as LTI Mindtree Ltd and Persistent Systems Ltd, saw their workforce fall to 2.06 million people at the end of September from 2.11 million at the beginning of the fiscal year, resulting in a loss of 51,744 jobs. The IT services industry has been grappling with slowing growth as clients cut back on discretionary spending amid high interest rates and military conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia.

Simultaneously, the rise of disruptive technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) has raised fears that much of the work done by engineers now will be automated, posing an existential threat to the country’s $245 billion outsourcing industry. To be sure, the slowdown has been in the making for at least a year.

A Mint analysis shows that headcount peaked for Mphasis in the June quarter of last year. By the end of September last year, headcount peaked for TCS, Wipro, Tech Mahindra Ltd and LTI Mindtree.