Layoffs at Infosys, Wipro ? Read beyond the headlines


Last week, the Indian media ran headlines announcing layoffs at top companies:



One needs to read beyond the headline to understand the facts. It is customary for software service firms to announce headcount - number of people employed - any major changes during the quarter. During recent earnings announcements, the companies indicated:
  • Wipro has reduced its head count by over 3,000 in the second quarter. The company, that had 1,66,790 people working under it at the end of June quarter, saw its workforce down by 3,031 (1.8%) to 1,63,759 at the end of the second quarter ended September 30, 2016.
  • Infosys also indicated that in the first quarter, it had reduced its head count by 1,811 (0.9%) from 2,00,364 to 1,98,553 employees
A reduction of 1.8% and 0.9% of workforce by IT majors should not be news. This seems to be normal percent of attrition that IT executives encounter in the industry. 

Though the rate of attrition in the Indian IT has slowed down considerably, people leave for better opportunities all the time. One is left wondering why the media and journalists are calling this "news" by drafting sensational headlines. 

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