The decline in employee headcount is not just limited to the IT sector. Public sector undertakings (PSUs) have also seen a decline in headcount in the last few years. All but four of the top 16 government-owned companies by market capitalisation have seen a decline in their headcount during FY24.
A CNBC-TV18 analysis shows that 12 PSUs, including Coal India, State Bank of India (SBI) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), have cut their workforce by 23,306 in FY24 after cutting at the same level in FY23.
The biggest decline in the number of employees was seen in Coal India, where 4% to 5% of its workers retire every year. The country’s largest coal producer recorded a net reduction of 10,349 in the number of employees during the year.
Its employee strength had declined by 9,340 in FY23. The wage bill for Coal India is 48% of its total expenditure and it fell by 1% to ₹48,783 crore in FY24 due to the reduction in manpower.
“As there are retirements and layoffs of employees, this is bound to come down,” Coal India Finance Director Mukesh Agarwal said after Q3FY24 earnings.
This trend is visible across all sectors from banking and manufacturing to energy and minerals.
In fact, the country’s largest lender has been reducing its total workforce for the past five years. Since FY19, the bank has reduced its workforce by 10%, which equates to 25,000 fewer employees. The state-owned lender had a workforce of 2,32,296 at the end of March 31, 2024, the highest among listed PSUs.
Coal India with around 2.3 lakh employees is at the second position, and Punjab National Bank (PNB) is at the third position with a total number of 1,02,349 employees as of March 2024.
The data also shows that most public sector banks, including Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank and Indian Overseas Bank, have reduced their employee strength during the financial year.
However, companies that added employees in FY24 include SBI Life Insurance, GAIL India, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and Bharat Electronics. While SBI Life Insurance added around 3,100 employees during the year, others saw their headcount grow by up to 215.
The market capitalisation of the top 16 PSUs as of close of trade on Friday was Rs 43.7 lakh crore, which is 61% of the combined market capitalisation of all listed PSUs.
