Hiring by TCS, Infosys and Wipro, which account for a major chunk of job opportunities in the sector, slowed down by a hefty 60% in the April-June quarter as the big three hired only around 3,400 persons.

In the April-June 2012, these three companies had hired over 8,700 persons on a net basis.

The country's largest IT company TCS added 1,390 persons in the June quarter this year, against net addition of 4,962 persons in the year ago period.

Infosys hired 575 persons during the quarter against 1,157 net additions in the same period last year.

Wipro added 1,469 people to its IT services division in June quarter compared to over 2,600 people in the year ago period.

In the January-March quarter, the three companies had hired over 16,500 persons.

While TCS and Infosys saw gross additions of 10,000 each during June 2013 quarter, net addition subtracts the number of people leaving the company from the gross additions.

Experts consider the net number as a better indicator of actual increase in staff count.

"IT companies are cautious in their hiring plans currently. They are hiring on requirement and project basis," Uday Sodhi of job portal Head Honchos said.

Hiring in the sunrise sector has been sluggish for quite a quarters as the outsourcing industry is under duress amid clients cutting back on IT spends fearing a further weakening of the economic conditions.

TCS while announcing its results this month had said that its hiring had come down due to low attrition rate. The company witnessed a low attrition rate of 9.55% for IT division and 15.77% for BPO segment.

A recent survey by IT industry body Nasscom had said that attrition rate in the IT sector has come down to around 14% in 2012-13 from 19% in 2010-11 for IT and KPO segments.

The survey, which rated TCS, Infosys and Wipro among top five IT employers, also said that hiring by companies would grow at a slower rate this year.

Moreover, there has been a change in hiring pattern by software and services companies, which may lower net additions this year, it said.

Project based 'just-in-time' hiring is the dominant way at present, it added.

Source : TOI