Freshers' hiring likely to nosedive 65% as IT firms skip campuses

WITH THE FIRST half of FY24 already over, and companies like Infosys and Wipro hitting the pause button on campus visits this year, college placement officers and experts are estimating an about 65% fall in freshers' hiring this fiscal. In June, HR analysts had predicted a 35% drop.

- SAMEER RANJAN BAKSHI, ANEES HUSSAIN

While IT services companies like Infosys and Wipro have publicly announced that they might skip campus visits this year, placement officers from top engineering colleges said that even other large players, including product companies, were a complete 'no-show'.

Even if companies are showing up, they are hiring a much smaller number of candidates. For example, HCLTech's investor release reveals that in H1FY24, the company added about 5,227 freshers, just a third of the 16,362 hirings a year ago. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which saw its total head-count falling by 6,333 in Q2FY24, said that there might be some delay, but the company is honouring all offers made to freshers.