Infosys to hire 20,000 freshers by year-end

Infosys on Thursday said it has added 8,023 employees in the second quarter and onboarded over 12,000 freshers in the first half of the financial year.

Addressing the media after announcing the second-quarter results, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Jayesh Sanghrajka, said: “In terms of hiring, we have a net addition of over 8,000 employees and have onboarded 12,000 fresh graduates in the first half of the financial year. We expect to hire nearly 20,000 freshers by the year-end. We had set a target at the beginning of the year to hire around 15,000 freshers for FY26.” Speaking on the H-1B visa issue, the company said that the majority of its workforce does not require such visas.

Salil Parekh, CEO of Infosys, said: “The number of people who require Infosys’ sponsorship for immigration is a minority. We have built a large number of centres and hubs focused on digital, innovation, technology, and AI in the US. We also have relationships with universities and training centres there. With all this, we assure our clients that we can function without any disruptions.”

Parekh added that near-shoring has been a major success for the company. “Many years ago, we started the process of hiring locals in each of our key geographies — Europe, the US, Australia, and others — and that approach has really matured,” he said.

Nearly a month after US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation increasing the H-1B visa fee to $100,000 for fresh applicants, Infosys and Wipro — both of which announced their second-quarter results on Thursday — said that the visa fee hike has had very limited or no impact on them, as they are focusing on localisation and partnerships with local universities for recruiting fresh graduates.

Saurabh Govil, chief human resources officer at Wipro, said nearly 80% of the company’s workforce comprises local employees. “We have very limited impact due to the changes in the H-1B programme. We have other avenues to manage the change,” he said. Govil added that the company recruited 2,900 freshers in the quarter, and its overall headcount has increased.

Recently, Infosys announced a share buyback worth Rs 18,000 crore. Speaking on this, Parekh said: “We have a policy to return 85% of free cash flow over a five-year period. Within that, we have regular and other mechanisms for returning value to shareholders.”

Sanghrajka added: “Last year, we had a strong cash flow on the back of tax refunds. So, we had the headroom to return additional cash, and we evaluated various options — one of which was the buyback.”

[Written by Sanal Sudevan of The New Indian Express]