India’s technology job market is experiencing a notable shift, with increased demand for experienced professionals and AI-related roles despite a broader slowdown in tech hiring and a decline in fresh graduate recruitment.
India’s technology hiring market is no longer moving in one direction. According to foundit’s Insights Tracker for July 2026, demand for technology professionals rose 10% over the past year even as the IT industry’s share of fresher hiring fell from 32% to 24%. The data suggests employers are still hiring for tech work, but increasingly outside traditional IT companies and with a sharper focus on candidates who already have specialised skills.
That shift comes against a broader slowdown in tech job creation. Economic Times reported that India’s active tech job openings at the start of 2026 were down 24% from a year earlier to about 103,000, the second-lowest level since January 2021. It also said IT services, the largest employer of tech talent, continued to face weak global spending and uncertainty in the US, while global capability centres remained a relative bright spot.
Foundit’s report shows that entry-level recruitment is changing as well. Fresher hiring overall fell 2% month on month and 10% year on year, while the 7-10 year experience band was the only group to expand, rising 2% month on month and 11% year on year. Tarun Sinha, foundit’s chief executive, said companies were making a choice to hire experienced staff more quickly rather than build graduate pipelines, warning that the short-term saving could tighten the talent market later.
Artificial intelligence is also reshaping the kind of beginner roles on offer. AI-linked jobs now make up 4% of all fresher hiring, up from about 1% in 2025, with more than half of those openings focused on operating, validating and optimising systems rather than building them. The highest pay remains concentrated in a narrow set of skills: two-thirds of entry-level roles still pay below ₹5 lakh a year, while salaries of ₹8 lakh and above are largely reserved for AI, data science, cybersecurity, semiconductors and product engineering. Foundit also said global capability centres raised their share of fresher hiring from 8% to 11%, while Indian corporates and start-ups lost ground.
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