Hiring on track despite slowdown: Infosys

New Delhi, Aug 12 (UNI) IT outsourcing giant Infosys today said its hiring plans remain on track despite the slowdown in the United States.

''We had sent letters to about 18,000 students from campuses last year for hiring in the current fiscal. In total, we expect about 22,000-25,000 recruitments (including attrition) this year,'' Infosys Vice President and Group Head (HRD) Nandita Gurjar told reporters here.

About 10,000 will be hired during the July-September period itself, she added.

Infosys Technologies had hired about 35,000 people in the last fiscal. This is low compared to last year but the number of campus hirings remains same in both the fiscals.

The company will take the final call on the number of recruitments in the third quarter, but Ms Gurjar asserted that no offer letters, which have already been given, be taken back.

The number of hiring from the field can, however, be cut.

Talking about attrition, Ms Gurjar said the rate has reduced in the first quarter to 13.6 per cent from 13.9 per cent last year.

The company has also given out handsome increments to the tune of 11-14 per cent compared to 12-15 per cent last year for offshore hiring and five per cent from last year's three per cent for onsite.

Infosys has also introduced a biannual promotion scheme. ''This gives us the scope to review the performance and not force us to promote somebody because otherwise we have to wait for a full year,'' Ms Gurjar said.

The global credit crunch and weakening of the dollar have brought Indian IT margins under pressure. But despite this, Infosys has posted an 18 per cent year-on-year rise in net profits for FY08.

Nasscom has forecast lower revenue growth from software and services exports (21-24 per cent) for FY08, as compared to 29 per cent in the previous year.

The current fiscal will hold major challenges for the IT sector in the form of global credit crunch, recessionary trends in the US and exchange rate fluctuations.

UNI SR SBA PM1750