Indian IT Giants Report Sluggish FY26 Hiring Numbers Amid Workforce Reductions

India's Top IT Firms Restructure Amid Artificial Intelligence Drive

The financial year 2026 saw a significant shift in India's IT hiring narrative, with the country's top firms turning cautious on workforce expansion as they restructure business operations around their artificial intelligence (AI) goals. According to latest data, the overall headcount addition across Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra plummeted sharply, falling by 7,389 in FY26, reversing the modest gains of 12,718 seen in FY25.

The biggest shocker for the IT industry in FY26 was the country's largest private sector employer TCS deciding to lay off 12,000 people from its workforce, the biggest job cut by an Indian corporate entity in recent times. This had led to the overall hiring of the top five IT companies to slide to negative, though three out of five firms have reported net positive headcount addition.

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Management commentary across the board has continued to signal caution when it comes to hiring, with companies shying away from sharing definitive outlook on hiring plans for FY27. Individually, in Q4FY26, Infosys' headcount decreased by 8,440 employees, while TCS added 2,356, HCLTech added 802 employees, and Wipro's headcount marginally increased by 135 sequentially. Tech Mahindra lost around 1,993 employees.

According to Nasscom's latest annual strategic review, India's technology industry added only about 2,000 more net jobs year-on-year in FY26. Net additions stood at roughly 1.35 lakh employees, only marginally higher than the approximately 1.33 lakh jobs added in FY25, indicating that hiring growth has largely plateaued.

At an industry level, the sector's total workforce grew to 59.5 lakh (5.95 million) employees in FY26, up from 58.2 lakh (5.82 million) in the previous year, translating into a 2.3 percent increase in headcount.

Fresher hiring targets have been reduced significantly, with TCS planning to hire 25,000 freshers in FY27, significantly lower than its previous fresher addition of 40,000-42,000 in FY25 and FY26. Infosys plans to hire for a similar fresher number of 20,000 in the new fiscal year, as it did in FY26.

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Company managements have cited various reasons for the reduction in hiring, including quarterly seasonality, changing demand profiles, and a focus on building a "future-ready organization" by strategically hiring both fresh graduates and experienced professionals. TCS has said it will increase its fresher hiring target depending on demand during the year, while Infosys and Wipro have not outlined specific targets for FY27. HCLTech and Tech Mahindra have also stated that their hiring will be on a quarterly and monthly basis, making it difficult to provide annual forecasts.