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In a worrisome trend for jobseekers in the IT sector, the cumulative hiring by IT majors Cognizant and Capgemini declined by 151,607 employees globally in 2023 compared to 2022, regulatory filings from the companies showed.
Both companies have majority of their employees based out of India — together, combined they employ around 400,000 people in the country.
US-based Cognizant hired 1,32,000, while French IT consultancy firm Capgemini recruited 1,40,789 employees in 2022, excluding people hired through acquisitions, The Economic Times reported.
However, Cognizant hired only just over 60,000, while Capgemini hired about 61,182 in 2023. This translates to a drop of 72,000 hirings at Cognizant and 79,607 for Capgemini compared to 2022.
Indian IT behemoths like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro have also seen a drop in their headcount, which declined by around 70,000 in total in the fiscal year ended March 31.
The companies are now significantly reducing new talent intake due to macro uncertainty.
While Indian IT service providers are shy of talking of layoffs, in the second quarter of 2023, Cognizant initiated the programme aimed at simplifying its operating model, optimising corporate functions and consolidating and realigning office space to reflect the post-pandemic hybrid work environment. In 2023, Cognizant incurred $115 million in employee separation costs and $114 million in facility exit and other costs, totalling $229 million, the ET reported.
Cognizant’s employee count reduced by 7,100 in the March quarter of FY24 to 344,400 from a year earlier. About 250,000 of its employees are based in India. At the Capgemini Group, the total headcount dropped to 337,200 as on March 31, 2024, down 6 percent from a year earlier. Offshore workforce represented 57 percent, or 192,000 employees, of the total headcount, down from 58 percent, or 207,300 employees, in March last year. Indians comprised about 66 percent of Capgemini’s total headcount as on December 31, 2023.
Once a booming sector, tech engineering is facing challenges as big tech companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Tesla, Apple and Meta are reducing headcounts over AI integration and other factors.
Deedy Das, a tech influencer, sounded alarm about an impending “winter” for the industry players in tech engineering. Through a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Deedy highlighted stark differences between the current landscape and the industry’s state two decades ago.
Copyright©2024 Living Media India Limited. For reprint rights: Syndications Today
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