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Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), one of India’s leading IT firms, is grappling with a significant skills gap, resulting in 80,000 unfilled job positions. This challenge is part of a broader slowdown in the IT sector, as reported by the Times of India.
Amar Shetye, the global operations head of TCS’s Resource Management Group (RMG), highlighted that the mismatch between the skills of current employees and the roles needed has forced the company to rely on contractors to fill these gaps. “We were told that either skillsets or employee aspirations are not matching project requirements,” an anonymous employee revealed to the Times of India.
The struggle to fill these positions comes at a time when Indian IT majors, including TCS, have been delaying the onboarding of freshers, leaving many without confirmed joining dates. Over the past two years, more than 10,000 freshers have been affected by these delays, according to the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES).
Harpreet Singh Saluja, president of NITES, reported receiving numerous complaints from candidates offered positions at top IT companies such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Zensar, and LTIMindtree. Infosys, for instance, informed candidates via email that joining dates would be determined by business requirements, with notifications sent at least 3-4 weeks in advance. The company only hired 11,900 campus recruits in the financial year 2023-24, a 76% decrease from the previous year’s 50,000.
Wipro has also not fulfilled campus offers made two years ago. “The year before last, we went to campus and made many offers. We are yet to honour those,” Wipro CHRO Saurabh Govil said during a recent earnings call. “We will finish those offers and then hire new freshers.” In April, Zensar asked candidates to take a test to be considered for onboarding and previously requested freshers to confirm their continued interest despite delays.
The delay in onboarding is attributed to business uncertainty in North America and Europe, with clients cautious about IT spending amid signs of a slowdown. Quarterly results from IT firms indicate a significant slowdown in the sector. Krishna Vij, business head of IT staffing at TeamLease, estimated that 3-5% of freshers hired in 2022 by top IT services companies are still awaiting onboarding due to project visibility issues and a focus on required skill sets and job readiness.
This talent shortage and delay in onboarding come at a time when the Indian government is reportedly looking to collaborate with IT giants like TCS, HCL, and Tech Mahindra to develop software for quantum technologies under the National Quantum Mission (NQM). This initiative aims to boost research in quantum technology in the country, with a total outlay of over ₹6,000 crore spread from 2023-24 to 2030-31, according to a Moneycontrol report.
In the financial year 2023-24, the combined headcount of TCS, Infosys, and Wipro decreased by nearly 64,000, as these firms over-hired during the pandemic and later shifted focus to productivity without increasing headcount. Ashwin Yardi, CEO of Capgemini India, stated that their campus hiring numbers for this year would be moderated, with last year’s intake being around 30,000 freshers.
The current situation underscores the critical need for bridging the skills gap in the IT sector to ensure that companies can meet their project requirements and support growth in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.
Sources By Agencies
