Hiring by IT companies may disappoint job seekers this year, as top software companies such as Infosys and Wipro are likely to hire less and focus on employee productivity.
In 2014-15, the country's two big software firms Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys increased their headcount by 20,000 and 16,000 respectively.
"Overall, the IT/BPO sector saw additions of nearly 2 lakh employees during April and December in FY15, compared to 80,000 in 2013-14 and 92,000 in 2012-13," NDTV Profit quoted financial services firm Nirmal Bang as saying.
The surge in IT hiring witnessed in 2014-15 may not continue, as most analysts expect hiring to remain sluggish in the next few years.
Many companies including Infosys and Wipro are reportedly planning to maximize their revenues without adding more employees.
Recently, Wipro CEO TK Kurien said that the company's focus on automation will bring down its headcount by a third in the next three years.
"Wipro is moving its automation focus from service desk to application services, which would lead to a reduction of 30% of its headcount in the next three years," Kurien, told The Economic Times on 27 April.
The initiative by India's third-largest IT firm could see about 47,000 employees losing their jobs, taking into account its employee strength of 1.58 lakh people as of 31 March, 2015.
Besides, Infosys has set a goal to increase its revenue to $20 billion by 2020, and bets on improving employee productivity to realize the target.
"We are aspiring roughly in the ballpark of 2.5 lakh employees for using $20 billion in revenues as opposed to 1.75 lakh to 1.80 lakh employees for using $9 billion in revenue right now," said Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka while releasing company's quarterly results on 24 April.
The country's second largest software company estimates employee productivity to increase to $80,000 by 2020, compared to the current $52,500.
The phenomenon is not limited to Wipro and Infosys alone, as other companies are also looking to deploy automation and non-linear models to increase revenues without hiring more.
Nirmal Bang said job creation picked up pace in the first nine months of 2014-15, with the country seeing more than 1 lakh additions between April and December 2014. This may not be repeated in the near future, the firm said.
