Indian IT companies layoffs over 67,000 employees in just one year: Reports

The year 2023 began on a grim note for techies across the globe as many companies started announcing large-scale layoffs. From Twitter (now called X) and Meta to Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, ex-employees of many companies came forward and shared their stories on LinkedIn. In India too, many employees were impacted by the layoffs wave and took to social media to either look for a new job, or simply vent out their feelings.

A recent report by the Mint revealed that in just one year, 4 IT giants - Infosys, TCS, Wipro and Tech Mahindra - laid off over 67,000 employees. The report further reveals that while Infosys laid off 24,182 employees, Wipro handed the pink slip to 21,875 employees. On the other hand, TCS bid adieu to 10,818 people while Tech Mahindra culled 10,669 roles.

But were layoffs the only setback that techies had to go through in the last year? Not really. The Mint report attributes Naukri.com and says that IT firms also slowed hiring in addition to the layoffs. In December 2023, the number of job offers handed out to candidates showed a decline of 21 percent when compared to December 2022.

Apart from slowing hiring and showing people the exit door, companies also took other steps to bring down their costs. For instance, Wipro decided to slash freshers' job offers by almost 50 percent in February last year. The tech giant had initially offered salary packages of Rs 6.5 lakh to freshers. However, citing the 'changing macro environment' as the reason, the company mentioned that it was altering freshers' compensation.

The move attracted a lot of backlash from people, who questioned the ethics of such a decision. However, reports had also added that the company was not forcing the freshers to accept the new offer and had given them a chance to decide if they wanted to hop on board with the lower compensation offer.

On the other hand, in October last year, Infosys revealed its plans of skipping campus hiring as they had enough freshers to train already. In a press conference at the time, Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh had said that the company was carrying “inefficiencies in its employee pyramid and had enough room to tighten utilisation to 84-85 percent."

The company had also reportedly slashed the average variable pay of its employees by 40 percent for the quarter that ended on March 2023.