Infosys eyes return to campuses after Covid pause: Signs of hiring revival?

IT major Infosys is reportedly returning to campuses to recruit fresh graduates, which was on break since the Covid-19 outbreak. This renewed focus on campus hiring comes despite the industry having grappled with low single-digit growth for a second consecutive year, battered by a weak global economic backdrop and the fallout from US tariffs that have drained momentum from manufacturing and retail sectors.

What's the latest

According to a report by The Economic Times, Infosys has sent an email to its senior employees asking them to join the panels that will be visiting campuses for interviewing candidates. The hirings will be for roles at the company's development centres pan-India.

As part of the process, Infosys will be reportedly visiting over ten tier-II and -III engineering colleges to conduct multiple rounds, including an in-person aptitude test, group discussion, technical round, and managerial round.

Infosys saw a sharp drop in fresher hiring to 11,900 in FY24 from 50,000 in the previous year. The numbers, however, picked up again in FY25, rising to 15,288.

Besides Infosys, TCS, Wipro and other major IT players are also planning to hire more than 70,000 graduates combined in FY26, the report said.

Why it matters

The return to campus hirings is crucial as it follows mass layoffs in the industry, increasing artificial intelligence (AI) dominance, and proposed tariffs on Indian IT services. Moreover, most of the IT firms had decreased campus hiring due to a slowdown during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In July, TCS announced plans to lay off 12,000 employees, or 2 per cent of its global workforce this year, making it one of the biggest job cuts for the Tata group company. TCS said the move was part of the company's broader strategy to become a "future-ready organisation", focusing on investments in technology, AI deployment, market expansion, and workforce realignment.

Meanwhile, reports that US President Donald Trump is planning to block American companies from outsourcing technology work to Indian providers have kept domestic IT firms on edge.

The concern is significant, given the heavy reliance of these companies on the US market. For TCS, North America alone contributes nearly half of its business, accounting for 48.2 per cent of total revenue in Q4 FY25, according to a company release. Whereas North America contributed 57.9 per cent to Infosys’s revenue in FY25, compared with 60.1 per cent in FY24.

Services sector drive growth

The return to campuses by IT majors could be a signal of improving sentiment across the industry. The gross domestic product (GDP) data released last month showed that strong momentum in the services sector helped the economy outperform expectations for the second straight quarter, with growth rising to a five-quarter high of 7.8 per cent in April–June 2025.