India’s IT giants are getting older—and that’s a problem

Analysts warn that the shrinking number of employees aged under 30 could indicate automation-led redundancy in entry-level roles and point to broader shifts in the IT services market.

Young graduates increasingly prefer startups, captive tech centres of global firms like Google and Microsoft, and product-based tech companies—drawn by better pay, faster growth, and more creative, less mundane work, they added.

This assumes significance as it signals cracks in the traditional pyramid model used by Indian IT firms, where a wide base of young workforce supports a narrower band of experienced professionals and management. With fewer young hires, slower hiring, and narrow margins, companies like TCS and Infosys are under pressure to rethink their workforce plans amid weak global tech demand.

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Falling numbers

At TCS, just 47.7% of employees in India were below 30 years of age as of March 2025—down from 59% in FY22. This implies 44,542 fewer young employees at TCS than it had three years earlier. While the company doesn’t provide region-wise data, about three-fourths of its global workforce of 607,979 is based in India.

Infosys shows a similar pattern. Only 52% of its 323,578 employees were equal to or under 30 years of age at the end of FY25, down from 60% in FY22—a net drop of about 17,609 younger employees.

“It is interesting to note that the percentage of employees in the less-than-30 years’ age group is at the lowest level over the past six years across most geographies,” said Kotak Institutional Equities analysts Kawaljeet Saluja, Sathishkumar S., and Vamshi Krishna, in a note dated 3 June.

Analysts say automation is partly to blame.

“The primary areas of deployment for entry-level employees was managed services where these employees handled customer support roles. With automation tools on offer, there is lesser need for such people which can be another reason for the lowering count of those aged 30 and below,” said Ashutosh Sharma, research director at Forrester Research, a Massachusetts-based research and advisory firm.

Phil Fersht of HFS Research echoed this view: “Advances in automation and AI have enabled these firms to deliver traditional services with fewer headcounts. In addition, many clients are demanding lower prices, which is driving providers like TCS and Infosys to deliver with fewer people.”

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Broken pyramid

Analysts are flagging the structural challenge this poses to the pyramid model.

“Significant improvement in the pyramid from the current levels requires healthy revenue growth in the normal course of business, not our base case in FY2026E,” said the Kotak analysts.

TCS’s revenue in FY25 rose only 3.78% to $30.18 billion—its slowest growth in four years. Infosys’s revenue growth was similarly sluggish at 3.85%, touching $19.28 billion.

India’s IT outsourcers saw slower growth last year as global clients cut back on tech spending due to economic uncertainty.

“Improving the employee pyramid will help in structurally better margins,” said the Kotak analysts. 

Hiring entry-level employees increases operating margins of an IT outsourcer as they can be deployed in projects at lower costs compared with executives of higher experience, for whom the client has to shell out a greater amount.

TCS and Infosys posted operating margins of 24.3% and 22.1%, respectively, in FY25. 

A Mumbai-based analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted that slow hiring reflects sluggish demand for IT services.

“IT service providers hire junior employees, most of whom fall under 30, when there is high demand for tech services. This was the case in FY22 when plenty of freshers were added. Now because growth has been a little sluggish, hiring has been low and which is why we see fewer young people.”

In FY22, TCS and Infosys had added over 157,000 employees combined. In FY25, that number dropped to just 12,771.

This also shows up in campus placement data. Engineering colleges across India have reported fewer offers from top-tier IT services companies over the past two years. Many final-year students who would typically receive early offers from TCS and Infosys are now seeking opportunities at product firms, fintech startups, or overseas universities instead, according to placement officers at institutions in Bengaluru and Pune.

Also read: TCS vs Infosys vs Wipro: How many freshers are IT majors hiring in FY26? Job outlook for upcoming year explained

Ageing abroad

TCS faces a more pressing issue abroad: an ageing workforce in key markets.

In North America, which contributes over half of TCS’s revenue, more than 20% of its workforce is over 50 years old. In Europe, nearly 28% of its employees are above 50.

Worryingly, the firms are also losing their appeal among young jobseekers.

This shift in demographics isn’t just a TCS or Infosys problem—it reflects a broader transformation in the Indian IT services landscape, which has historically relied on a large, young, and inexpensive workforce to deliver cost-effective offshore services to global clients. With that model under strain, the entire sector may be heading for a reset.

Infosys received 4.46 million job applications in FY25—a 24% drop from FY22. TCS does not share comparable data.

While neither company responded to emails seeking comment, people familiar with internal HR strategies at TCS and Infosys said both firms are exploring re-skilling and AI-integrated training programs to improve employee productivity.

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