Wipro’s headcount drops by more than 5,000 in Q2

Wipro, India’s fourth largest IT services provider, recorded a sequential dip of more than 5,000 employees to 244,707in its headcount for the second quarter of FY24. The company’s staff strength for the quarter ended June was 249,758.

Its voluntary attrition for IT services stood at 15.5%.

The Bengaluru-based software company posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,667.3 crore for the quarter ended September 30, up 0.7% year-on-year (YoY). The IT services segment revenue was reported at $2.71 billion, down 2.3% sequentially.

This comes as major Indian IT firms have all reported a drop in their headcounts. India’s largest software exporter, TCS, reported a net fall of 6,333 employees in the second quarter of FY24, taking its overall headcount down to 608,985. Further, the headcount fell by 7,186 from the year-ago period. The company had added only around 523 employees sequentially in Q1.

Infosys, the country’s second largest IT services provider, reported a dip of 7,530 in its headcount over the second quarter of FY24, taking its total headcount down to 328,764.

While announcing its earnings for the second quarter, Infosys made a rare declaration that it would altogether skip hiring from colleges this year, while industry leader TCS is expected to go slow on fresher hiring.

Indian IT majors are likely to see a fall of nearly 50,000 in headcount this financial year, as a bleak environment for technology services globally looks set to worsen amid geopolitical conflicts in West Asia and Europe, ET reported on October 14.

In contrast, these companies added 70,000 people in the last fiscal, while in FY22 they hired 150,000, stoked by a massive demand for digitisation triggered by Covid-19.

Since then, a weak macro economy and tapering demand for technology services have cast a pall on the sector, with prospects likely to further weaken after the latest flare-up in Israel.