October 2, 2025

India’s tech job market is feeling the chill! According to a fresh report by staffing firm Xpheno, active job openings in the tech sector plunged by a huge 27% year-on-year in October 2025. This signals a big slowdown as the sector's share of India’s total talent demand dipped sharply from 84% in 2022 to just 48% now. Digging deeper, IT services jobs fell by 24% to 42,000 openings and software product roles dropped 22% to 26,000. But wait, there’s some sunshine! Funded tech start-ups boosted hiring by 13%, adding 17,000 jobs, and Global Capability Centers (GCCs) also grew slightly by 2% with 11,000 openings. GCCs now soak up roughly 10% of all tech talent demand. Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, summed it up well: “Hiring action in India’s tech sector remains sluggish amid challenges with discretionary tech spending and sustained headwinds in IT. While the sector has registered a few green shoots in demand volume and velocity, it’s few and far apart.” He warned the drop in IT services is a serious concern, especially with recent troubles in the US market likely to hit demand soon. Looking at job levels, mid-junior roles took the biggest hit, falling 28%, followed by entry-level jobs down 19%, and mid-senior roles down 10%. Tech and engineering jobs still rule the demand with a 57% share, but even these roles fell 25% year-on-year. Project Management also cooled off while Consulting & Advisory roles bounced back, rising 18%. Geography-wise, India’s mega cities felt the squeeze hard. Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru led a 29% drop in openings. But the story flips in smaller towns and cities! Tier 2 and Tier 3 locations together saw a sharp 41% jump month-on-month and a modest 2% rise year-on-year with 24,000 openings. This could hint at a slow, exciting shift of talent demand beyond big metros. So, is India’s tech hiring winter over? Not yet. But with start-ups and GCCs bringing some life into the party, fingers crossed for warmer days ahead!

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Tags: Tech talent demand, India job market, It sector slowdown, Gcc growth, Start-ups hiring, Xpheno report,