21SEP

HCLTech hires again as Wipro cuts 6,716

3 min read

16:45UTC

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 had no fresher hiring target. 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

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Wipro added 888 staff with no fresher target set

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

Korea's four largest banks, as reported by News1

KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana and Woori rehired 1,013 retirees last year, equal to 79.1% of their graduate intake, according to News1. Graduates face a smaller entry intake while returners take fixed-term credit-screening roles at lower pay, News1 reports.

High Court of Justice of Madrid

The court's employment chamber ruled in judgment 864/2026, dated 8 October and made public in early November, that introducing AI is not on its own a ground for dismissal. Employers must prove AI's effect through the four causes the Workers' Statute already lists.

Singapore Ministry of Manpower

The Singapore Ministry of Manpower put third-quarter retrenchments at 4,800, concentrated in information and communications, financial services and manufacturing, with business reorganisation the main driver. Its release does not mention AI.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas

Challenger reported on 5 November that market and economic conditions overtook AI as the leading stated reason for 2026's US job cuts, at 130,531 against 121,401. AI was cited for 1,265 cuts in October, its lowest month of the year.

Office for Budget Responsibility

The OBR's 28 October outlook showed output per worker in information and communication growing 7.6% a year, yet kept AI's boost to UK productivity at 0.2 percentage points a year. It does not attribute the faster growth to AI.

Central Bank of Ireland

Governor Gabriel Makhlouf said on 2 November that AI investment has supported Irish activity and flagged the debt financing behind it as a financial-stability risk. On jobs, he named skills bottlenecks and mismatches, not job losses.

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