Synopsis
India's top IT companies are achieving revenue growth with stable employee numbers. This trend highlights a shift towards automation and improved productivity. Job openings have decreased, indicating a more selective hiring approach. Companies are focusing on delivering integrated business outcomes rather than expanding teams for individual projects. This strategy allows for more efficient operations and growth.Listen to this article in summarized format
The country's six largest information technology (IT) services firms have grown their combined revenue from $95.9 billion in FY23 to $103.1 billion in FY26 while their headcount held broadly steady at about 1.9 million employees, according to data shared by staffing firms and industry experts.
Active technology job openings have fallen to about 93,000 in June 2026, the lowest level in more than two years, down from 112,000 a year ago, according to staffing firm Xpheno. Active IT services job openings fell 31% to 36,000 while entry-level openings nearly halved to 10,000 from 18,000.
This divergence points to a deeper shift in how the industry is growing, with companies increasingly relying on automation, productivity gains and more selective hiring to drive growth, staffing firms and industry experts told ET.
“The hiring slowdown appears much sharper than the optimism around AI spending,” said Pareekh Jain, chief executive of research market platform EIIRTrend.
Firms are increasingly shifting to a just-in-time hiring model, where talent is added only when demand becomes visible rather than in anticipation of future growth. “Companies are not hiring for the bench now, which used to drive hiring earlier... Companies believe that with AI they will do more with less in future,” Jain said.
Macroeconomic uncertainty and efficiency gains from AI are reducing the need for large hiring pipelines, he added.
The trend is reflected in productivity metrics across the technology sector.
As per data from EIIRTrend, the combined revenue per employee of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro, HCLTech and Tech Mahindra increased from $49,400 in FY23 to $54,600 in FY26.
After accounting for higher utilisation levels and other factors such as pass-through revenue and a higher onsite component from acquisitions, the industry may still have only delivered about 5% net productivity gains over the past three years, Jain said.
DD Mishra, senior VP and analyst at Gartner, said, “IT organisations are placing greater emphasis on digital cohesion, where integrated business outcomes matter more than standalone hiring-led projects.”
