Technology services firms have been witnessing a decline in the traditional software maintenance business, which earns them a major chunk of revenue; as more businesses demand services through digital technology like cloud.

Industry sources state that the top five IT services companies - TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, HCL Technologies - have hired nearly 60,000 engineers from campuses this fiscal, as against little more than 100,000 last year.

This financial year campus hiring by IT services companies dropped by at least 40 per cent against the numbers of FY16,” said Kris Lakshmikanth, chairman and managing director of The Head Hunters India, a specialised recruiting agency for IT sector.

This figure however contradicts Industry body Nasscom last month said it witnessed 5 per cent growth in overall job creation by information technology and information technology-enabled services industry this year.

Infosys, India’s second largest IT services firm, said during its third quarter results that it hired nearly 5000 during the first 9 months, compared with 17,000 during the year-ago period.

Cognizant reported news of dropping 10,000 of its Staffs in its next appraisal process rings the panic button in IT sector.

This is attributed to the reason due to voices for repeal and replacement of Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), gains steam, there will be a pressure on two Indian IT giants - Wipro and Cognizant.

Wipro and Cognizant derive around 16 per cent and 29 per cent of their revenues, respectively, from the healthcare vertical.

Whereas Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and HCL Technologies likely to have lesser impact as their revenue shares in healthcare is lesser and causes no worry insiders told.