Almost half of Infosys Ltd’s 320,000 employees are now over 30 years old, the highest in the last 15 years, underscoring the challenges faced by the country’s second-largest IT services firm as more young people explore careers beyond the IT sector.
At the end of fiscal year 2026, Infosys had 166,636 employees aged 30 and below, making up about 50.7% of its workforce, a Mint analysis of its annual filings over the last 15 years showed. The Bengaluru-based company ended last year with 328,594 employees, up 5,016 employees from the preceding fiscal year. The share of young employees fell from 53% in the previous fiscal year, continuing a trend of decline since FY23.
The decrease in young employees was offset by an increase in those aged 31-50. Last fiscal, employees in the middle cohort made up 45.7% of the workforce, the highest in the last 15 years. Those over 50 made up 3.5% of the company’s workforce.
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Industry experts attributed the gradual ageing to two factors: One, global capability centres (GCCs), or the in-house IT divisions of global companies, are scooping up beginners with better pay and job prospects. Two, IT firms themselves are hiring fewer freshers.
“Of late, IT services firms have been looking to hire students for niche roles at higher packages. On the other hand, even the students are looking for companies that challenge their intellect and also offer scope for better career development. Many students are eyeing research-based roles and also in data science, cybersecurity,” said KS Sridhar, placement head at PES University, an engineering college in Bengaluru.
Infosys, which went public in 1993, started disclosing its age-based employee demographics in FY12. Until FY18, those aged 30 and below made up at least two-thirds of its workforce. However, the share has been falling since then.
The company, founded by N.R. and his six friends in 1981, put India on the global software map at the turn of the 21st century. However, over the last decade, India has emerged as the main destination for back-end tech centres due to abundance of skilled talent at scale and a growing venture capitalist ecosystem giving a boost to startups. All of this opens new opportunities for the country’s 1.5 engineering million graduates.
At least two analysts said IT services firms are reducing mass hiring of freshers, which has contributed to this trend.
“Selective IT firms are looking to hire fewer young people, as automation tools are reducing the need for young graduates unless they have specialized skill sets. Still, I believe we are looking at a diamond pyramid structure where the companies will emphasize those between 30-40 as they can upskill and also have a better sense of the client’s IT ecosystem, which is crucial to win more business,” said Sushovon Nayak, lead IT analyst at Anand Rathi Institutional Equities.
“Another complicating factor is that with the new emerging AI talent, the tech services firms are having to hire employees with a higher calibre, which is harder to source, and in general, do not view the tech services firms as their first choice to work at,” said Peter Bendor-Samuel, founder of Everest Group.
To be sure, the trend is not specific to Infosys. Ltd, the country’s largest IT services firm, has seen a similar trend over the last five years. Employees under 30 accounted for about 48% of its 608,000 workers in FY25, the lowest since FY22.
TCS did not disclose the age-based demographic in its annual filings last fiscal. The Mumbai-based firm ended last year with 584,519 employees, down 23,460 from the year-ago period. Much of this can be attributed to its largest layoffs exercise in July where the company let go of about 12,000 employees.
It appears employees are also looking at higher-paying career options.
“There also seems to be a liking to working in and software product firms as they offer 20-30% higher pay than IT outsourcers,” said Nayak.
For Infosys, this decrease in young employees comes despite management hinting that it would hire the same number of college graduates as the previous fiscal year.
“The last year, we had announced 20,000 for FY26 and we have hired more than 20,000 freshers from the market. This year also, we are expecting at least 20,000 freshers to be hired,” said Jayesh Sanghrajka, chief financial officer of Infosys, during the company’s post-earnings press conference on 23 April.