Hiring on hold in Indian IT sector amid volatile biz climate

Bengaluru: Indian IT industry is likely to see a washout year in terms of hiring in 2025 as all hopes of recovery in the second half of this year are slowly fading owing to the intense uncertainties arising from Trump tariffs.

According to HR sector professionals and company officials, July-September period has seen no improvement in terms of hiring in the IT industry, as compared to April-June of this year. Rather, hiring this year has been tad below than in 2024.

“We were anticipating an uptick during July-September period, but it has not happened unfortunately so far. Due to uncertainties in the global market arising from tariffs imposed by the US government, and friction seen in the trade talk between India & US; companies are still in a wait and watch mode,” Supaul Chanda, President (Staffing) of HR staffing firm, Galent told The Hans India. “Overall hiring numbers this year so far has been below last year’s level. It picked up during the initial months of the year but went away after that,” he added.

According to IT industry sources, companies have been going through an uncertain business environment since February this year. “Every day, there are statements made from American administration, targeting countries. Each day, we hear meetings, and conferences. But there is no finalisation of deals. Under such circumstances, how can you expect enterprises to finalise IT projects,” an official from a mid-tier IT firm sought to know.

Indications of such volatility have already been evident as American enterprises are not able to price products as tariff rates are not finalised despite prolonged negotiations with several countries. With severe disruption to supply chain across many sectors, American companies are holding back any big-ticket investment at this point of time.

Meanwhile, employee additions fell significantly in the April-June quarter for Indian IT firms. The top six Indian IT services companies- TCS, Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro, Tech Mahindra & LTIMindtree- added just 3,847 positions during Q1 of current financial year as compared to 13,935 people added in the previous quarter.

Sources in the know said that during July-September period, headcount addition numbers will not look very different from those of the first quarter of FY26.

GCCs (global capability centres) in India are also treading cautiously in terms of hiring new professionals because of uncertain business environment faced by their parent companies in the US and Europe. GCCs have been leading headcount addition in recent years. However, the momentum seems be dying down in several of these centres, sources in the know said.