TCS Now Has 598,056 Employees After a Third Straight Quarter of Hiring: Is IT Safe for Freshers Again?

TCS ended the September 2026 quarter with 598,056 employees, a net addition of 4,258, according to Business Today's report on the company's fact sheet released on 8 October 2026. It is the third consecutive quarter of net headcount growth, and last-twelve-month attrition in IT services eased to 13.3% from 13.6%. For freshers, the signal is real but modest: the hiring pipeline is open again, and the pace is slowing.

What is TCS's headcount after Q2 FY27?

TCS's closing headcount at 30 September 2026 was 598,056, per Business Today. The company reports on a net basis, so the 4,258 is joiners minus leavers, not gross hiring.

The number reconciles with the earlier quarter. PTI reported 593,798 employees at the end of June 2026, and 593,798 plus 4,258 equals 598,056. These are company-reported figures, relayed by the press.

Is this really the third straight quarter of hiring?

Yes. TCS has added staff on a net basis in each of the last three quarters, following the FY26 restructuring. The table shows the run, with the two quarters of decline that came before it.

Two details matter. The Q2 FY27 addition is less than half of Q1's 9,279. And 598,056 is still below the 607,979 that TCS had at the end of FY25, per Entrepreneur India.

Is TCS attrition falling?

Slightly. Last-twelve-month attrition in IT services was 13.3% in the September 2026 quarter, down from 13.6% in June, Business Today reports. Voluntary attrition at the end of March 2026 was 13.7%, according to PTI.

Lower attrition means fewer seats open up through resignations. When fewer people leave, TCS needs fewer replacement hires to grow, which can cap how many fresher slots appear even in a healthy quarter.

How does TCS compare with Infosys, Wipro and HCLTech?

The sector is split. The latest peer figures available are for Q1 FY27 (the June 2026 quarter), and only two of the five companies below grew.

Sources: Outlook Business (PTI), 24 July 2026 and Entrepreneur India, 4 August 2026. All figures are company-reported.

TCS is the clear outlier on the upside. Wipro grew by a small margin, while the other three shrank. A comparison of Q2 FY27 numbers will be possible once those companies publish their September-quarter results.

Is TCS hiring freshers in FY27?

Yes. Business Today reports that TCS issued about 25,000 offers at the start of FY27 and that roughly 14,000 freshers had joined by the end of Q1. The report describes this as a continued effort to rebuild the entry-level pipeline. It gives no Q2 joining figure.

That leaves roughly 11,000 offered candidates not yet counted as joined at the end of June, if both figures are measured the same way. Whether they joined in Q2 is not stated. The gap is worth watching if you hold an offer.

TCS's chief HR officer, Sudeep Kunnumal, said in the Q2 release that the company continues to build its workforce through upskilling and hiring, and pointed to a 17% sequential rise in learning hours to 17.1 million, per Business Today. This is a paraphrase of the report.

What are other IT companies saying about fresher hiring?

Infosys CEO Salil Parekh said the company plans to recruit 20,000 college graduates this fiscal year and had already done over 4,000 in the first quarter, as reported by PTI. The report describes the plan as similar to the previous year.

Tech Mahindra CEO Mohit Joshi described campus recruitment as somewhat volatile because of limited visibility on revenue. He said he expects the campus programme to resume as visibility improves, and that the company has no annual intake figure yet, per Entrepreneur India. Both accounts are executives' statements, not audited hiring data.

Is IT safe for freshers again?

Safer than it was in late 2025, but not safe in the way it was before the restructuring. TCS shrank by 19,755 and then 11,151 in consecutive quarters of FY26, and its employee base fell by 23,460 across the year, according to Storyboard18 and PTI. The recovery since then is real, but it has not returned TCS to its FY25 size.

Practical reading for a fresher or final-year student:

1. Treat offers as live but not guaranteed. TCS and Infosys both describe active fresher programmes. Keep applying to more than one company.
2. Expect uneven demand across firms. Three of five large companies in the table above cut headcount in Q1 FY27.
3. Build skills the employers are visibly training for. TCS highlights upskilling hours in its own release, which suggests learning ability is a screening signal. That is an inference from the release, not a stated hiring criterion.
4. Check your joining date in writing. If you hold an offer, ask your campus coordinator or the company's onboarding contact for the batch schedule.

What's still unclear?

Several points remain open as of 12 October 2026.

• Q2 fresher joining. No Q2 figure for freshers who joined has been reported, so the 25,000 offers cannot yet be matched against actual joiners.
• Net versus gross. Net additions hide the mix of new joiners and leavers. TCS's CHRO said in October 2025 that the company hired 18,500 people in that quarter while headcount still fell by 19,755.
• A disputed FY26 count. A union, NITES, alleged that TCS underreported exits in FY26. TCS called the claims inaccurate. That dispute is unresolved in the sources used.
• The attrition wording. Business Today reports attrition fell from 13.6% to 13.3%, while also quoting the CHRO saying it "remained stable." Both can be read as describing a small move.
• The trend. Q2's 4,258 is below Q1's 9,279. Two data points do not show whether growth is leveling off or merely uneven.
• Sector view. Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu has argued that Indian IT is no longer creating jobs as before, per Entrepreneur India. One company's three-quarter run does not settle that argument.