AI/ML Hiring Jumps While IT Services Hiring Falls: India's Two Tech Job Markets
Naukri's September JobSpeak shows white-collar hiring up just 2%, but AI/ML roles grew 20% while IT/software services hiring fell 4%. The split is getting wider.
India's white-collar job market barely moved in September. Naukri's JobSpeak index rose to 3,053 from 3,002 a year earlier, a 2% gain. The flat total hides a widening split between AI roles and traditional IT services work.
What the September data shows
- AI/ML hiring rose 20% year-on-year, the fastest of any category Naukri tracks.
- Auto came next at 11%. BPO/ITES and GCC hiring grew 4% each.
- Insurance, retail, banking and financial services, and real estate were broadly stable.
- Hiring fell in IT/software services (4%), pharma/biotech (4%), FMCG (4%) and healthcare (3%).
- Hyderabad led the metros at 9%, then Chennai at 6%, with Bengaluru and Kolkata at 4% each. Pune was flat. Delhi-NCR and Mumbai fell 6% each.
JobSpeak is built from new job postings and recruiter searches on Naukri.com. It measures employer demand, not completed hires.
Two tech job markets
AI/ML up 20% and IT services down 4% in the same month. Both get filed under "tech hiring", and they are going in opposite directions.
That matches what brokerages said this week about Indian IT's September quarter. AI cuts the effort on a services project, clients want the saving, and fewer billable hours means fewer people hired to fill them. Meanwhile the companies putting AI into their own products and operations need specialists and are hiring them directly. GCC hiring up 4% while IT services shrinks points the same way.
The city split is telling as well. Hyderabad and Chennai, both heavy GCC locations, beat Bengaluru this month. Mumbai and Delhi-NCR went backwards.
What I'd take from it as an enterprise buyer
If you run an AI programme inside an Indian company, you are competing for the same small pool of AI/ML people as every GCC in Hyderabad and Chennai. The open market will stay expensive, so reskilling your own engineers and analysts has to be deliberate rather than a side project. And when you buy services, ask how much of the delivery team is doing AI work and how much is doing the work AI is about to absorb.
One month of index data is not a trend. But it lines up with the earnings forecasts, which makes it harder to wave away.
Source: ETCFO — India's white-collar hiring rises 2% in September as AI/ML jobs hit record growth: Naukri