Hiring by top 4 Indian IT companies dips 43% in Sep quarter: Report

Decline in hiring is not a surprise and is consistent with slowdown in growth rates and efforts of Indian IT to drive up productivity, says reoprt

Total hiring by top-four Indian IT companies in the September quarter stood at 14,421, a decline of 43% from a year-ago period, mainly due to a slowdown in growth of these companies, says a report.

"Total hiring by the top-four Indian IT companies in the September quarter was at 14,421, down 43% Y-o-Y). Hiring in the first half of this fiscal was down 24 per cent to net of 29,686," Kotak Institutional Equities said in a research note.

The report further said that decline in hiring is not a surprise and is "consistent with slowdown in growth rates and efforts of Indian IT to drive up productivity".

According to the report, the second quarter results of this fiscal for the IT companies were weak with growth one of the lowest in recent times. The slowdown in performance can be attributed to deteriorating macro-environment.

"The most recent quarter was weak for all companies with the underlying common theme of project deferment and macro uncertainty impacting different verticals with the possible exception of the telecom vertical," the report said.

Moreover, a few large clients, especially in financial services vertical, are either shifting software development and maintenance work to their own captive centers or insourcing work, which in turn is affecting growth numbers of IT majors.

"...Bunching up of such decisions by different banks/companies has impacted growth," the report said.

According to the report, there is a shift of IT spending towards consulting and consulting firms, especially with strong technology practice such as Accenture.