Infosys adds 4,480 employees in Q2; targets hiring 20,000 freshers in FY25

So, we think this dynamic will continue as we scale,” said Salil Parekh, managing director and chief executive of Infosys. The company’s chief financial officer, Jayesh Sanghrajka, added that fresher hiring also takes into account the six to eight months of training required before recruits can be deployed. “We do have to plan ahead of time to make that happen, and that is reflected in the net additions you are seeing today,” he said.

“Hiring is a function of attrition, utilisation, demand in terms of volume, and productivity benefits. We have seen annual attrition of 12-13%. That means roughly 45,000 people will leave in a year, and they need to be replaced through lateral hiring or freshers. We are working at 85% utilisation, which, in our view, is optimal,” he explained. Infosys’ utilisation rate, including trainees, declined to 81.9% in the September quarter from 82.1% in the June quarter.

Excluding trainees, utilisation rose to 85.4% from 84.9%. This is in line with analysts’ view that utilisation levels will remain in the mid-to-high 80s as the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation pushes IT companies to decouple delivery models from headcount growth and bench strength. While TCS and HCLTech do not disclose their utilisation rates, industry experts estimate that their utilisation levels have remained in the mid-80s over the past few quarters.

Attrition at Infosys declined sequentially by 30 basis points to 12.7% in the September quarter from 13% in the June quarter. On the suspension of the PERM programme, Infosys management said the company had limited dependence on it. “The majority of employees we have in the US are local hires. We had already taken some steps several years ago that have brought us to this position. We feel we have a good ratio in terms of bringing people on board and maintaining cost efficiency,” the company said. 6% in the September quarter from 22.8% in the June quarter