Infosys is reportedly planning to lay off about 2,200 senior managers, that is, those belonging to the job level 6, as well as about 4000 to 10,000 people in the JL3, JL4 and JL5 levels, that is, employees belonging to the associate and middle levels.
While the information technology (IT) company maintains that this round of job cuts is not a mass trimming exercise, the fact remains that the Company has not witnessed such massive and targeted job cuts recently even though it has laid off people earlier on the basis of performance.
Infosys has mostly tried to avoid downsizing, but in the last two quarters it began to consider it. The Company presently employs a total of 30,092 people in the JL6, JL7 and JL8 bands, as well as about 86,558 employees in the associate bands, that is, JL3 and below. In the mid-level, that is, JL4 and JL5 levels, it has 1.1 lakh employees.
Of the 971 senior executives, including vice presidents, senior vice presidents and executive vice presidents, about 50 will be rendered jobless.
The Company prefers to term this downsizing as involuntary attrition, which is an important part of the normal functioning of any business.
Following the announcement, the share prices of the Company dipped by 0.98 per cent.
These layoffs in the IT sector should not come as a great shock because the sector is trying to tighten its belt. The main reason is that the demand for complex skills have gone up. Also, the requirement of employees has come down with advanced levels of automation.
