Bangalore: Software major Wipro Ltd said on Wednesday (Jan 21, 2004) that it added 2,872 people during the third quarter ending December 2003, taking its total employee strength to 27,137.

"We added 1,908 people for our global IT business and 964 for our BPO arm, Wipro Spectramind," Wipro vice chairman Vivek Paul told reporters in Bangalore.

He said about 30 per cent (780 people) of the 2,600 people hired during the quarter for the IT business were freshers.

Wipro, he said, had a high 17 per cent attrition rate and attributed to junior people leaving the organisation, due to low salary hikes.

"We gave a higher hike to people in the senior level, and it has resulted in high attrition in the junior level. We are going to address that, it is an issue," Paul said.

During the quarter, Wipro added 24 new customers comprising eight customers in research and development services, 14 in enterprise services and two in the IT enabled services business.

He said lower utilisation rates of the company was due to hiring of new recruits from campuses, who had to be put on training.