IT hiring: Infosys to offer jobs to 35,000 fresh graduates in 2021-22

Indian IT giant Infosys will hire around 35,000 fresh engineering graduates globally this financial year, according to its chief operating officer Pravin Rao. Around 10,000 fresh college graduates have already been hired, while the rest will be offered jobs in the next two-three quarters.

Several media reports have mentioned that Infosys is planning to meet the demand for digital talent by expanding their hiring of college graduates.

High attrition rate

Rao said that with increasing demand for digital talent, there is rising attrition in the Information Technology (IT) industry, posing a near-term challenge.

“Voluntary attrition is a reflection of the high demand and shortage of supply,” added Rao.

Infosys’ voluntary attrition rate, calculated this time on the basis of the last 12 months, rose to 13.9% in the first quarter from 10.9%. During the period, however, it added 8,334 employees.

To keep this attrition in check, Infosys has rolled out several employee engagement initiatives, including career acceleration opportunities, compensation reviews and learning and development interventions. The company also raised the salaries of its employees in January and July.

Robust hiring in other IT companies

Not just Infosys, other IT companies are also drawing up robust hiring plans with a boom in digital deals. Last week, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said it was planning to hire more than 40,000 freshers from Indian campuses this year.

The tech major, which now has more than 5,00,000 employees, said it was planning to recruit more people in FY22 than the previous fiscal year.

“This year we may hire more than 40,000 associates from campuses in India. In the United States, we hired 2,000 employees from different college campuses in FY21 and this year, the number is likely to be higher. It will be the same for Latin America,” TCS CHRO Milind Lakkad told the media earlier this month.

India’s largest IT company TCS has already added 20,409 associates to its workforce in the first quarter of FY22, taking its total to 5,09,058.

Growth in IT sector hiring

Hiring in the IT-software/services sector grew 5% month-on-month in June as demand for technology has increased amid the Covid-19 pandemic, a Naukri JobSpeak report showed. The sector also achieved an all-time high growth of 52% compared to pre-Covid levels of June 2019, as per the report.

Even IT industry body Nasscom said that in mid-June, the sector continued to be a net hirer of skilled talent. It had confirmed that the top five Indian IT companies were planning to hire over 96,000 candidates in 2021-22.

The industry, which would continue to be a net creator of jobs and hirer of skilled talent, added 1,38,000 people to its workforce in FY2021, Nasscom said in a statement on June 17.