AI, GCCs and a changing job market: India's fresher hiring is no longer just an IT story. Who's driving the shift?

India's technology hiring is growing, but the opportunities for fresh graduates are shifting.

While demand for technology professionals rose 10% over the past year, the IT sector's share of fresher hiring fell sharply from 32% in 2025 to 24% in 2026, according to the foundit Insights Tracker (fit) for July 2026.

At the same time, Global Capability Centres (GCCs) strengthened their position as recruiters of entry-level talent, increasing their share from 8% to 11%, the biggest gain among all employer categories, as they expanded hiring across AI, engineering, analytics and finance operations. Multinational companies (MNCs) also saw a marginal increase, with their share rising from 26% to 27%.

Tech Hiring Moves Beyond Traditional IT Firms

While the IT occupation index grew 10% year-on-year, the IT industry hiring index declined 6%, indicating that technology hiring is increasingly taking place outside traditional IT companies. Banks, manufacturers, healthcare firms and GCCs are emerging as key recruiters of tech talent.

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Meanwhile, fresher hiring continues to remain under pressure. Overall entry-level hiring declined 2% month-on-month and 10% year-on-year. In contrast, professionals with 7–10 years of experience were the only group to register growth, with hiring rising 2% month-on-month and 11% year-on-year.

"One in four entry-level IT jobs has disappeared over the past year, even as demand for tech work has continued to grow. Hiring experienced talent may be faster, but organisations that continue hiring graduates through a slow year are investing in future capability and building tomorrow's leadership pipeline," said Tarun Sinha, CEO, foundit.

Sales, Engineering and Healthcare on Top

Fresher hiring is also broadening beyond technology roles.

Sales and Business Development increased its share of entry-level hiring from 18% to 20%.
Engineering and Production rose from 6% to 8%.
Medical roles recorded the biggest jump, climbing from 7% to 11%, making healthcare the fastest-growing functional area for fresh graduates.

The broader hiring trends reinforce this shift. Across occupations, Marketing and Communications recorded the strongest year-on-year growth in July at 22%, followed by Medical roles at 20%.

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AI Jobs Grow, but Operations Lead

AI-led roles now account for 4% of fresher hiring, up from around 1% a year ago.

However, more than half (51%) of these opportunities are in AI operations—including data analysis, prompt engineering, AI operations and testing—rather than AI model development. This suggests organisations are hiring more talent to deploy and manage AI systems than to build foundational AI models.

Skills and Internships Shape Hiring

STEM graduates continue to account for the largest share of fresher hiring at 42%, reflecting sustained demand for technical skills, followed by Management and Commerce graduates (32%).

At the same time, employers are gradually moving towards skills-based hiring, with 15% of fresher job postings not specifying any educational qualification.

Internship experience has also become a key differentiator. Nearly six in ten fresher job postings now prefer or require prior internship experience, while only 42% remain open to candidates without any internship exposure.

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Pune Emerges as a Fresher Hiring Hub

Delhi NCR continues to lead fresher hiring with a 19% share, followed by Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune at 14% each, Hyderabad (11%) and Chennai (9%).

Pune recorded the biggest gain in fresher hiring share, rising from 12% to 14%, driven by growth in engineering, manufacturing and GCCs. Mumbai's share slipped from 16% to 14%, reflecting stronger hiring for experienced commercial roles instead.

Tier-II cities also showed greater resilience than the national average. While the overall hiring index declined 12% year-on-year, Coimbatore, Jaipur and Kochi saw only marginal declines of 1–2%, supported by hiring across IT services, GCCs, engineering and BFSI. The data also points to growing fresher hiring activity in Indore, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Mysuru and Visakhapatnam.