The surge in hiring at Reliance marks a sharp rebound from FY24, when the company saw an 11% decline in its workforce, primarily due to subdued retail activity. In FY25, the rebound appears strong, with the retail division accounting for 61% of Reliance’s total workforce, followed by digital services at 23%.
To put this in perspective, only 12 companies on the Nifty50 have a workforce exceeding one lakh employees, with IT and financial services firms dominating the list. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) leads with over 6 lakh employees, followed by Reliance Industries, which overtook state-owned giants like Coal India and State Bank of India, along with Infosys, to claim the second spot nearly three years ago.
Infosys ranks third with a workforce of 3.24 lakh employees, while others like State Bank of India (SBI), Wipro, Coal India, HCL Technologies, Bajaj Finservand HDFC Bank have employee strength ranging between 2.1 lakh and 2.4 lakh, show data compiled from Bloomberg.
What makes Reliance’s rise notable is that it comes at a time when the IT sector is witnessing slower hiring due to automation, AI adoption, and a broader industry slowdown.
Also Read: Global tech layoffs cross 1.3 lakh in 2025, hiring slows across Indian IT majors
Between FY21 and FY25, Reliance Industries’ workforce grew at a CAGR of 14.3%, significantly outpacing TCS and Infosys, which expanded their headcounts at 5.6% annually. In contrast, State Bank of India—the country’s largest lender—saw a nearly 1% decline in staff strength over the same period.
Despite prevailing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, Reliance Industries delivered a robust performance for the financial year ended March 2025. The company’s revenue rose by 7.1% to ₹10.7 lakh crore, while net profit increased by 3% to ₹81,309 crore. Operating across sectors such as energy, retail, telecom, media, and green technologies, Reliance saw strong momentum in its retail division, which surpassed ₹3.3 lakh crore in turnover, supported by an expanded store footprint of 19,340 outlets.
Also Read: Reliance’s Ambani, Zomato’s Goyal take no salary as Nifty’s top unpaid executives
