The shrink in the headcount is not limited to the information technology sector as these signs are appearing in public sector undertakings (PSUs) as the sector continues to witness a shrink in staff strength over the last few years.
Decline In Headcount Of Top PSUs
Consider the case of the top 16 state-owned firms by market capitalization, all of them, except four, have reported declines in their employee count during FY24.
It appears that the 12 PSUs including Coal India, State Bank of India (SBI) and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) have together cut their staff strength by 23,306 in FY24 after a similar magnitude of reduction in FY23, as per a CNBC-TV18 analysis.
Out of these, the biggest drop in headcount was witnessed at Coal India as almost 4% to 5% of its employees are superannuated every year.
Further, Coal India has reported a net reduction in manpower by 10,349 during the year.
The country’s largest coal producer employee count had come down by 9,340 for FY23.
The company’s wage bill accounts for 48% of its total expense and the same declined by 1% to ₹48,783 crore in FY24 due to a reduction in manpower.
The Director of Finance at Coal India, Mukesh Agrawal noted, “As the superannuation and attritions of employees are taking place, it is bound to come down,” post-Q3FY24 earnings.
This holds a great significance as this trend is visible across sectors from banking and manufacturing to energy and minerals.
In such a similar incident, State Bank of India also witnessed its number of employees fall by 3,562 in FY24 after witnessing a reduction of 8,392 in FY23.
Reducing Headcount
In a closer look, this has been happening for a long time as the country’s largest lender has been cutting its total headcount over the last five years.
It appears that the financial service provider has reduced its employee count by 10% since FY19 which equates to 25,000 fewer staff.
By the end of March 31, 2024, the number of employees at the state-owned lender stood at 2,32,296.
Interestingly, these numbers are the highest among listed PSUs.
Similarly, Coal India records the second highest headcount at about 2.3 lakh, Punjab National Bank (PNB) comes third with a total headcount of 1,02,349 as of March 2024.
This data further indicates that the most state-owned lenders such as Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank and Indian Overseas Bank have reduced their staff strength during the financial year.
But there are also some companies such as SBI Life Insurance, Gail India, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), and Bharat Electronics who have added employees in FY24.
For instance, SBI Life Insurance added nearly 3,100 employees during the year.
Others also saw their headcount increase by up to 215.
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