On track to meet 45,000 hiring target: Infosys

Infosys Technologies today said it is well on track to meet its target of hiring 45,000 persons this fiscal and will focus on local hiring.

"People addition is on track for 45,000 (employee hiring) target for the financial year 2012. The company will focus on local hiring. We have hired 1,000 people in the US in the last four quarters," Infosys Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director S D Shibulal said.

At the beginning of the current financial year, Infosys had announced plans to hire about 45,000 people.

During the October-December 2011 period, country's second-largest software services exporter hired 9,655 employees, while nearly 6,389 exited the organisation during the period, taking the net addition to 3,266.

"The attrition rate has come down from 17.4% in October-December period of 2010, to 15.4% in the quarter under review," Infosys' Member of the Board and Chief Financial Officer V Balakrishnan said.

During the first quarter of the current fiscal, while the company and its subsidiaries hired 9,922 employees (gross), over 7,000 employees left the organisation. The net addition stood at 2,740.

In the second quarter, the IT giant saw gross addition of 15,352 employees, while net additions amounted to 8,262.

At the end of December 31, Infosys and its subsidiaries had 145,088 employees compared to 127,779 people as on December 31, 2010.

In the past few months, anti-outsourcing campaign against Indian technology companies is gaining momentum in a slowing US and European Union.

Politicians and governments in these countries have been objecting to offshoring work.

Most Indian technology companies have been consistently hiring more and more in western countries over the past few years, to blunt the criticism of 'taking away' jobs. The proportion of the recruit in the US and the EU has seen a marked increase.