Big Tech firms add 30,000 employees in India in past 12 months: Xpheno

Meta, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix added over 30,000 jobs in India in the last 12 months, expanding headcount by 17% amid global restructuring

The world’s biggest technology companies, which have a sizeable presence in India in terms of real estate and headcount, saw a net addition of more than 30,000 employees in the country over the past 12 months, the highest in three years.

 

Meta, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix increased their India headcount by 17 per cent to about 210,000, according to data from specialist staffing firm Xpheno.

 

Hiring by these firms peaked at 37,000, or 35 per cent growth, at the end of 2022 during the post-lockdown hiring buoyancy. However, net annual growth in 2023 dropped to 10,000, or 6 per cent, as global tech hiring slowed. The companies added 23,000 employees last year as hiring activity gradually picked up.

 

“On this backdrop of movements, the current period’s net addition of 30,000 is relatively healthy, especially with all the buzz of AI potentially impacting demand, pace and volume of hiring,” said Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno.

 

This contrasts with the global trend, where these companies have been reducing headcount, particularly among mid-level managers, as AI makes many functions redundant and automates coding tasks.

 

Most big tech firms have also announced real estate expansion in India. OpenAI opened its first office in the country last month, while Apple has leased a large space in Bengaluru to consolidate operations.

 

Active demand is concentrated in engineering and IT, programme management, product management and risk and security. Key roles include software engineering, DevOps and cloud infrastructure, data science and analytics, business intelligence and full-stack development.

 

“The current slow-paced talent action in the tech sector has helped moderate salary demands from talent and the offer hikes from employers. As the current condition is set to stay for some more time, enterprises in the hiring funnel are not expected to drive packages up any further from where they are. Standard negotiation and hike bandwidths of 10–25 per cent will remain in play,” Xpheno said.