IT hiring falls, while attrition soars

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 22 July 2008, 22:56 IST
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Chennai: The IT companies witness a severe slow down in its hiring spree and salary hike while attrition soars. Four Indian companies have a total aggregate of recruitment, slowed down by about half. The declining rate of recruitments has stormed in unanimous doubts on the companies' intentions. However, the companies snapped back at the accusations, with one of the top four firms, replying, "When the environment is so uncertain, and our clients themselves are not sure how things would turn out in the next few months, why would we continue to hire indefinitely if we have met our annual manpower targets?," reported BusinessLine. IT service firms like TCS and Infosys drooped in their net addition numbers, compared to the June 2007 quarter while their attrition rate soared up to 12.8 percent and 13.6 percent respectively. Even Satyam and Wipro projected a lower recruitment profile. To this, the Wipro Vice-president, Prantik Kumar clarified that about 2,500 fresh graduates had joined the rolls towards the end of the March quarter, which could reflect on lower net addition numbers in the June quarter. Wipro revealed a net reduction of 725 in headcount for the quarter ending June 2008, which they consider to be a result of involuntary attrition that amounts to 1.4 percent of the total attrition. However, a 0.5 percent decline is observed in Satyam's attrition that accounts to 12.6 percent. Even after lower recruitment and higher attrition, the companies' accounts reveal lower salary hikes, which is again blamed on the gloomy business environment. The average hike for offshore employees has also declined from 12- 14 percent range to 8-9 percent range.