- Thursday, September 12, 2024
The employee strength in FY24 stood at 347,362, down from 389,414 in the preceding fiscal. The hiring of new recruits was also slashed by a third
By: Shajil Kumar
INDIA’S top conglomerate Reliance Industries trimmed 42,000 jobs or 11 per cent of its workforce in financial year 2024, according to media reports.
The Mukesh Ambani promoted group is carrying out a cost-efficiency drive and has scaled down hiring, especially in its retail arm, which also saw store closures.
The employee strength in FY24 stood at 347,362, down from 389,414 in the preceding fiscal year. The hiring of new recruits was also slashed by a third, Economic Times reports.
Reliance Retail, which accounts for around 60 per cent of its total workforce, was the most affected. Employee numbers dropped from 245,000 in FY23 to 207,000 in FY24.
In FY23, Reliance Retail added over 3,300 new stores, but in FY24 the net addition was down to 800 stores, bringing the total to 18,836.
While the store footfall and its registered customer base continued to grow, growth in the number of transactions has slowed in the past couple of quarters.
The telecom arm, Reliance Jio, also shed over 5,000 jobs with its overall employee strength falling from 95,326 in FY23 to 90,067 in FY24.
According to Reliance’s annual report, 74.9 per cent of voluntary separation were below the age of 30, and 22.7 per cent were female. The overall voluntary separations in FY2024 were lower than FY2023.
Despite these reductions, Reliance Industries’ overall employee benefits expense increased by 3 per cent year-on-year to ₹256.99 billion (£2.39bn).
