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HCLTech hires again as Wipro cuts 6,716

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15:19UTC

HCLTech added 6,450 staff, including 6,136 freshers, and Tata Consultancy Services grew again, while Wipro cut 6,716 on flat revenue.

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Key takeaway

Two of India's three largest IT firms grew headcount last quarter; Wipro, on flat revenue, shrank.

HCLTech added 6,450 net staff in the September quarter, taking headcount to 230,339, including 6,136 freshers (graduates hired straight from college) against 1,056 three months earlier, while its "Advanced AI" revenue rose 78% year on year at constant exchange rates to $219m⁠¹. That reverses the 3,292 it cut in the June quarter. India's IT services firms do coding and back-office work for Western companies, so their hiring is one read on outsourced white-collar work.

Wipro cut 6,716 staff to 236,328⁠² on flat IT services revenue of $2.61bn and a forecast of between a 1.5% fall and a 0.5% rise next quarter⁠³, three months after it added 888 net staff while saying it would hire no freshers. Chief executive Srini Pallia said: "We see AI as a long-term growth driver that will expand the addressable market for technology and business transformation."⁠⁴

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) added 4,258 people to reach 598,056, its third straight quarterly rise, according to figures relayed by Business Today, which also reported annualised AI revenue (the current quarter's rate scaled to a year) of $3.1bn⁠⁵. In July TCS reported shedding 19,271 staff over a year.

HCLTech's headcount and AI revenue both rose; TCS grew modestly; Wipro, on flat revenue, cut. One reading is that the entry-level work France and Canada stopped hiring for has moved to India. No source shows that; a rebound from last year's trough, deal timing and hiring to replace staff who quit explain the same numbers.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

India's big IT companies do computer programming, software testing and office work for businesses around the world. They hire huge numbers of new graduates, called freshers, every year. In the three months to September, HCLTech and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) took on more staff, and HCLTech hired many more graduates than in the previous quarter. Wipro, whose sales were flat, cut about 6,700 jobs. All three say AI is becoming a bigger part of their business. The figures do not show whether AI caused the hiring or the cuts.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Indian IT services run on a pyramid: a broad base of freshers billed at low rates supports a narrow tier of senior staff. Campus offers are made up to a year ahead, so the September quarter's intake reflects hiring decisions taken in 2025, and TCS says it issued about 25,000 fresher offers for this financial year, with about 14,000 joined by the end of June.

Twelve-month attrition ran at 12.8% at HCLTech, 13.3% at TCS and 13.8% at Wipro, so a large share of gross hiring only fills seats left by leavers.

Wipro's cut tracks its revenue rather than any stated AI plan. Its net utilisation excluding trainees was 83.4% and its IT services revenue was flat, so it has spare capacity to absorb demand without adding staff.

What could happen next?

Consequence
Indian IT fresher hiring is likely to vary sharply by firm, tracking each company's bookings rather than a sector-wide trend.
Risk
If Wipro's December-quarter revenue falls towards the bottom of its guidance, further staff reductions are likely.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources from India

India

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Primary parallel: After the 2001 dot-com bust, Indian IT firms froze campus hiring, then resumed it at scale from 2003 as Western clients moved more work offshore. Headcount at the largest firms rose for years once deal pipelines refilled.

Counter-parallel: In 2009, and again in 2022-23, Indian IT majors issued campus offers but deferred the joining dates of thousands of graduates for months. Offers did not translate into jobs until demand returned, which shows how fresher figures can move without any change in underlying work.

The immediate read is that headcount follows revenue at each firm: HCLTech's bookings and AI revenue grew and it hired; Wipro's revenue was flat and it cut. The three firms together added about 3,992 people net, small against a combined workforce above one million.

Structurally, HCLTech earns about $65,400 in revenue per employee. HCLTech also flagged a one-time cost from India's new labour codes, which raise statutory benefits such as gratuity and could make each additional fresher dearer to employ.

Consensus view: HCLTech's investor release links its hiring to deal flow: bookings rose 27% to $3.3bn and Advanced AI revenue grew 28.4% on the quarter, and The Firm took on 6,136 freshers against 1,056 in June. TCS, according to Business Today, now puts AI revenue above 10% of sales while hiring for a third straight quarter.

Counter-view: Not every services firm with a large Indian workforce is hiring: US-listed Cognizant and Kyndryl cut headcount through quiet net reductions and rebalancing charges in the summer, and Infosys stood almost flat on the quarter in July. One strong quarter at HCLTech sits inside a sector still adjusting staff levels downward.

Key tension: Whether the fresher intake reflects new AI-related demand or a catch-up after a year in which TCS, HCLTech and Wipro all held entry hiring back.

Sources:HCLTech·Wipro / SEC EDGAR·Wipro / SEC EDGAR

Mentions:HCLTech →Wipro →Tata Consultancy Services →India →Canada →Cognizant →Infosys →France →Kyndryl →Srini Pallia →

First Reported In

Update #21 · AI marks French hiring and Accenture's 10-K

HCLTech· 22 Oct 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

HCLTech's sharpest fall in five quarters

HCLTech's September-quarter hiring reversed the 3,292 net cut it reported for the June quarter.

Occurred 13 Jul 2026

Read story →

Wipro hired into its own hiring freeze

Wipro's September-quarter cut followed a June quarter in which it added 888 net staff.

Occurred 16 Jul 2026

Read story →

This Event

HCLTech hires again as Wipro cuts 6,716

India's IT services firms do outsourced white-collar work for Western clients, so their hiring is one direct read on where entry-level work goes.

Different Perspectives

TSMC

The chipmaker raised its 2026 revenue growth forecast to about 44% on 15 October while holding capital spending at $60-64bn. High-performance computing, mostly AI data-centre chips, made up 68% of quarterly revenue, so demand for the hardware behind automation is still rising.

South Korean government

Its statistics office published the first youth figures on the 15-to-34 band set by a revised law, showing a fall of 98,000 against 147,000 on the old band. Including people in their early thirties, whose employment rose, makes the official youth decline look gentler.

Office for National Statistics

The ONS put UK vacancies at 691,000 for July to September and professional, scientific and technical vacancies 11.6% lower on the year. In September it had shown the same sector still adding jobs, so the fall appears in adverts before it reaches headcount.

Chinese government

Officials told a State Council Information Office briefing on 10 October that 10.52 million new urban jobs had been created by September, 87.7% of the annual target. Official figures show investment falling overall but rising in networks, data services and robot output, with urban unemployment at 5.2%.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam

Singapore's President, co-chair of the World Bank Jobs Council, urged governments at the Bangkok meetings to make crisis-era youth employment support a standing policy tool. That treats young workers' AI exposure as a lasting budget line rather than a shock to ride out.

Srini Pallia, Wipro

Wipro's chief executive called AI a long-term growth driver as the company cut 6,716 staff on flat revenue. HCLTech and TCS added staff in the same quarter, so Wipro's cut sits beside its own weak revenue rather than an industry-wide fall.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.