Firms like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HCL Technology and Wipro had increased their earnings during the pandemic but were now facing the problem of staff leaving in larger numbers, the report said.

Infosys, which had 259,169 workers on its rolls, had seen its attrition rate go up to 15.2% from 10% in the previous quarter, while Wipro, which had 197,712 employed in the March quarter, had experienced 12.1% loss of staff.

HCL and TCS managed to keep their attrition rates down to single figures, 9.9% and 7.2% respectively.

The Nikkei report said with the shifting of work online, companies had pulled in enormous profits, with an expectation that the ongoing digital transformation would take two years, rather than the earlier estimate of three.

In April, Wipro had estimated a rise of between 2% and 4% in IT services revenue which meant it would pull in between US$2.195 billion (A$2.83 billion) and US$2.238 billion.

Apart from hiring staff due to the growth, companies were also offering higher wages, with TCS saying it had pumped up wages on 1 April. Infosys had said in October 2020 that it would increase pay from January.

Despite all four companies reporting robust results for the last financial year, the profits were already factored into the share prices.

TCS saw its shares fall by 4% in mid-April on the day after earnings were announced, and a further 10% thereafter. Infosys and HCL also saw the value of their shares decline.

The Nikkei report quoted HDFC Securities analyst Apurva Prasad as saying: "[Attrition] is in a way a good problem to have. The companies that have historically kept attrition in check will be in a better position, because of much better talent practices or scope to grow as well as the brand strength."

Another analyst, who was not named, said: "Some companies that have raised wages once will be under pressure to do so again and at higher rates, which of course increases costs for companies and has a subsequent impact on margins."