IT major Infosys has gone for a record hiring in 2018, adding over 68,000 new faces to its workforce, after a year of slow-down in 2017.

During the calendar year, the IT major added 68,532 new people in its payrolls, a jump of whopphning 68% in the gross addition, when compared with 2017. During 2017, when layoffs plagued the global IT services sector, the Bengaluru based IT major hired 40,911 people during the year, a plunge of 7% on an annual basis.

Historically, the company’s hiring process peaks during June quarter and September quarters, however in 2018, the company hired 18,773 people during the quarter ended December 31, 2018, the company filing reveals.

During 2018, when the company was marred by high levels of attritions, 44,722 people left the company, jump of 14.7% from the 38,983 people leaving the company in 2017. In fact in the June quarter of the calendar year 2018, the company’s attrition level touched an alarming level of 20.6%, which has been brought down to current 17.8% currently.

Analysts tracking the sector, attribute the phenomenon to the rising demand for new skill sets in the IT services industry.

Despite record hiring company, might not be as enthusiastically recruiting in 2019 as in 2017, on back of slight dip revenue per employee. In the previous two quarters, the company has seen its revenue per employee dip by 1.1% to $54,300 from $54,900. The company officials suggest that though the hiring is more dependent on demand, yet revenue per employee factor does might impact future hiring prospects.

The rating agency has also predicted lesser hiring for IT services companies in 2018. “The BPO/ITeS industry may see a slowdown in hiring in the coming quarters due to the introduction of minimum wage hikes in the country and automation taking over. Though automation leads to higher efficiency and accuracy, it is cutting down on jobs and talent acquisition in the BPO sector at an overall level,” it said in a report.