Why are top PSU companies not hiring?

Led by the IT giants Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys, the top listed companies by market capitalisation have reported net increase in employees to their total headcount in FY22, according to analysis from the annual reports.

Of them, TCS closed the year ended March with all-time high net addition of 103,546 employees, while Infosys hired 85,000 fresh college graduates, with a net addition of 54,000 employees. IT companies are battling high attrition, fueled by a sharp rise in demand for automation and digitalisation across all industry sectors. The software behemoths are compensating the same with high fresher recruitments.

Meanwhile, oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries recorded the highest net addition during FY22 with 107,000 employees. In the banking services, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank added 21,486 employees and 7,094 in the financial year respectively.

The hiring outlook is strong too in the near term. According to a teamlease report, the corporates “intent to hire” showed a substantial increase of 7% for the ongoing July-September quarter to 61% and it might hit 70% in the coming quarters largely driven by hiring from tier-2 cities.

Now, if we look at most of the listed PSUs, employee headcount has shrunk in FY22. This was the trend observed across sectors. Employment in PSUs is categorised as ‘on-roll’ and ‘off-roll’. Managerial staff, supervisory and non-executive employees fall under the on-roll category. Casual and contract workers are classified as ‘off-roll’ staff.

India’s largest state-owned bank State Bank of India headcount was lower at 244,250 in FY22, compared with 245,652 in FY21. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) too saw its employee strength drop marginally to 31,254. Meanwhile, BPCL employees fell to 8,594 in FY22 from over 9,000 in the previous fiscal.

Meanwhile, Coal India and GAIL too saw its employee count drop. Indian Railways’ ticketing and tourism arm IRCTC and SBI Life Insurance are the only companies among the top 15 PSUs that have reported an increase in the employee strength in FY22.
 

According to a report in a national daily, the fall in employee count has been coming down for many years. SBI saw its employee numbers go up when there was a merger with five other small banks in 2017-18. ONGC and NTPC had reported employee increase or hired many years ago. So, what explains this phenomenon and why are PSU companies not hiring or increasing their headcount?

[Byte of Radhicka Kapoor, Senior Visiting Fellow, ICRIER]