Infosys has kicked off the new financial year with a twin focus: rolling out wage hikes and expanding its workforce. The Bengaluru-based IT services major said that it began rolling out wage hikes for FY26 in January. Its peers have so far held back on increments. At the same time, Infosys has announced plans to hire over 20,000 freshers in FY26.
During the January-March quarter, Infosys added 199 employees, marking the third straight quarter of net additions after six consecutive quarters of decline. This brought its total headcount to 323,578, up by 6,388 over the previous financial year. The company had on-boarded 15,000 freshers in FY25, reaching its hiring target for the year. This follows a more cautious approach in FY24, when just 11,900 freshers were hired, a steep fall from the 50,000 recruited the year before.
Speaking at the company’s earnings conference, chief financial officer Jayesh Sanghrajka said, “We are on track on wage hikes. A large part of the increments were rolled out in January and the balance will be rolled out effective April 1. We plan to hire 20,000 plus freshers in FY26”. Sanghrajka also noted that attrition continues to be driven by multiple factors including opportunities with competitors, global capability centres (GCCs), and higher education.
While Infosys moves ahead with its hiring and compensation plans, rivals remain cautious. TCS, which reported a net addition of 625 employees for the March quarter, has decided to defer wage hikes for now, citing uncertainty in the business environment. Wipro, which added 614 employees in the same period, has said that salary increments for FY26 will be considered closer to the time.
Attrition for Infosys rose slightly to 14.1% from 13.7% in the previous quarter. Earlier this year, the company had also let go of 400 trainees at its Mysuru campus who failed to clear evaluation tests after three attempts.