French
IT
consulting
group
Capgemini
forecast
weaker
revenue
growth
and
said
it
would
slow
down
hiring
in
2023
amid
a
tech
sector
downturn.
The
comments
come
as
slowing
growth,
soaring
inflation
and
a
looming
recession
push
tech
companies
including
US
giants
Alphabet,
Microsoft
and
Amazon
to
slash
jobs.
Capgemini,
which
offers
consulting,
digital,
technical
and
engineering
services,
grew
its
workforce
by
11
percent
in
2022,
reaching
a
headcount
of
359,600
at
the
end
of
December.
However,
the
number
of
staff
rose
just
0.3
percent
from
the
end
of
September.
Chief
executive
Aiman
Ezzat
said
the
group
had
slowed
hiring
in
response
to
sluggish
demand
for
cloud,
data
and
artificial
intelligence
services.
“We
are
optimising
our
operation,
taking
advantage
of
the
lower
attrition
and
also
factoring
the
fact
that
we
have
lower
growth
in
front
of
us,”
Ezzat
told
analysts
in
a
call.
“(I’m)
not
going
to
do
a
prediction
regarding
headcount
growth,
but
to
see
our
growth
in
2023,
we’ll
have
to
increase
headcount,”
he
added.
Capgemini
expects
its
2023
revenue
to
grow
between
4
percent
and
7
percent
in
constant
currency,
compared
with
16.6
percent
last
year.
Its
annual
revenue
reached
22
billion
euros
(A$34
billion)
on
bookings
of
23.7
billion
euros,
an
increase
of
16.8
percent
at
constant
exchange
rates.
The
Paris-based
company
also
forecast
2023
operating
margin
in
a
range
of
13.0
percent
to
13.2
percent,
and
organic
free
cash
flow
of
around
1.8
billion
euros.
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