Bengaluru: Indian IT services companies are likely to hire higher number of freshers in FY26 as compared to last fiscal despite macroeconomic uncertainty induced by reciprocal tariff imposed by the US.

Industry experts are of the opinion that such uptick is driven more by low hiring in past years than any significant uptick in the demand environment. They also said that offer letters given to the freshers during campus placement should be turned into appointment letters in a specified time frame.

“What has happened that hiring of freshers has seen an uptick because of low hiring in last two years. We also know that giving an offer and converting that into appointment letter are two different things. The situation is very dynamic because clients of IT firms are giving mandate for short-term projects. When long-term projects fall, it directly affects fresher hiring,” said Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO of CIEL HR Services.

“Fresher hiring usually happens taking into account the long-term deal pipeline of an IT firm. It is basically about getting the supply right considering the future. They don’t bring revenue immediately,” he added.

Last month, management of big and mid-tier IT services companies has indicated that hiring of freshers will continue in FY26 amid an uncertain demand environment.

India’s largest IT firm, TCS has said that it would hire more number of freshers than it recruited last year. The company hired around 42,000 fresh engineering graduates last fiscal.

“We will hire slightly higher number of freshers (from campuses) in FY26 as compared toFY25. The hiring number each quarter will depend on the demand environment,” said Milind Lakkad, Chief HR Officer, TCS.

Similarly, Infosys is planning to hire more than 20,000 freshers in FY26, while HCLTech is expected to hire around 10,000 engineering graduates from campuses in the current financial year.

Among mid-tier firm, L&T Technology Services will recruit around 2,500 freshers in FY26.

While many firms have given fresher hiring target for ongoing fiscal, some have not done so on the back of uncertain demand environment. Companies like Wipro, Tech Mahindra have said that they would hire freshers as per the demand environment.

Meanwhile, experts opined that undue delay in giving appointment dates should be avoided by all IT firms. Recently, companies like Infosys had fired freshers undergoing training saying that these interns were not able to clear various stages of the training programme. “Freshers are expected to be good in new technologies because companies have increased the benchmark for final absorption,” said an industry source.