India’s startups, tech firms show steady rise in hiring after freeze

Demand for talent in India’s startup and tech sector has been on rising steadily over the past five months of the ongoing fiscal year (FY25), data from the specialist staffing services firm Xpheno shows.

The surge in demand follows a stint of recruitment freeze that lasted for nearly a year and half, and followed widespread layoffs. IT firms such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tech Mahindra, HCLTech, Infosys and Wipro could recruit 81,000–88,000 freshers in the current fiscal year.

Among emerging trends, the Xpheno report notes campus hiring could be conservative under the present uncertain market conditions.

As far as job location is concerned, the report says 85 per cent of demand is in Tier-I cities but, as industry body Nasscom observes, 15 per cent of the nation’s tech talent is based in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, which have started drawing businesses owing to lower costs and better infrastructure.

Opportunities have increased equally in full-time, remote as well as hybrid profiles since around the start of this year.

Hiring rate, the report says, was low through most of fiscal year 2023-’24, or FY24. There were 168,000 active openings in March 2024, and the number marked a 20-month high. However, figures declined to a record low of 107,000 active openings in May 2024. Currently, the number of active openings has increased by 25 per cent compared to May.

Hiring has started in IT companies across levels and campus hirings are also expected to pick up, Hitesh Oberoi, CEO and MD of Info Edge, which operates the job search portal Naukri.com, told the website Moneycontrol. The revival in hiring is primarily because utilisation rates have returned to pre-Covid levels and, because international companies prefer to outsourcing tech jobs to India. A surge in hiring could lead to bigger paycheques, too, the report points out, adding that this could make retention of employees a challenge.