India’s white-collar job market closed 2025 on a robust note, with the Naukri JobSpeak Index rising 13% year-on-year to 3,001 points in December, up from 2,651 a year earlier. The strong finish lifted the October–December quarter to 9% growth, the best quarterly performance of the year — signalling a positive outlook for 2026.
According to Naukri.com, the momentum was led by Hospitality (+29%), Insurance (+34%), and Real Estate (+21%), alongside sustained demand in AI/ML roles (+53%). Hiring for freshers rose 18%, while high-value roles commanding over ₹20 lakh per annum grew 27%.
Service Sectors Outpace Tech Volatility
Service-led sectors such as BPO/ITES, Hospitality, and Insurance recorded sharp turnarounds during 2025 — shifting from early-year softness to strong double-digit growth by the December quarter. BPO/ITES climbed from a 3% decline in Q1 to 20% growth, while Hospitality and Insurance jumped 25% and 19%, respectively. Non-metro cities powered this surge, with Jaipur (+94%) and Ahmedabad (+73%) leading BPO growth, and Mumbai (+28%), Delhi-NCR (+25%), and Hyderabad (+49%) driving other sectors.
Cybersecurity hiring remained a bright spot, with high-value IT and InfoSec roles up 42% year-on-year. Positions such as Application Security Engineer (+52%), Manager Information Security (+50%), and Security Architect (+43%) saw the sharpest demand.
Rise of Tier-2 Talent Hubs
Fresher hiring was concentrated in non-tech sectors like Hospitality and Insurance (each +56%), BPO/ITES (+44%), and Real Estate (+43%), with smaller cities such as Kochi, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur seeing the strongest gains.
Unicorns also expanded hiring by 21% year-on-year, led by southern metros — Chennai (+45%) and Hyderabad (+30%) — driven largely by Internet and e-commerce firms (+22%).
“The consistent strength in non-tech sectors—culminating in the strongest quarter at 9% in OND—shows this shift is now well entrenched,” said Dr. Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri. “Equally heartening is how these sectors have opened more entry-level opportunities as we step into 2026.”