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Tech hiring in India drops 3% in November; festive cheer fizzles out: Xpheno
The Consulting & Advisory function’s demand has dropped 20% MoM, despite an 10% rise over last year’s demand volume. Tech BD, Sales & Marketing function has seen a 8% drop MoM but a 2% growth YoY.
The build-up quarter ahead of the festive start was slow with lowered active talent demand in the tech cohorts. The overall context of the tech sector, for last 2 quarters, has not been conducive to bring enough cheer to Tech Talent this season. Tech Startups have visibly stayed away from deploying capital to increase manpower this season and also remained conservative in engaging additional talent for the seasonal spike, according to a report by Xpheno.
Headwinds for the IT Services sector intensified further with new legislative directives further impacting commercial and talent prospects for operating in & for the US. BigTech software players have had a moderate talent action over the year, and they continued the trend. The GCCs cohort and BIG4/BIG10 Consulting cohorts do not have a strong seasonal lift in talent action.
The collective outcome of varying dynamics across different tech-cohorts is the sluggish foot on which India’s Tech Sector has kicked off this year’s festive season hiring.
NOVEMBER 2025 – ACTIVE TECH JOBS OUTLOOK – HIGHLIGHTS • November 2025 opens with a Tech Jobs outlook for 102K active openings in the tech talent market in India.
• Overall, the Tech sector continues to witness a downward trajectory in active talent demand volume. The volume of active openings in the sector has remained sluggish over the last 5 months. The Tech Sector’s current contribution to India’s total active talent demand is 49%, continuing in the sub-50% mark for 3+ years now. Non-tech sector collective continues to hold the majority contributor status (51%), it took over from the Tech sector in October 2022.
• November’s Tech demand outlook is a 3% drop over openings in October 2025. The overall dip in tech hiring activity continues, with November 2025’s outlook being 28.0% lower than last year’s (November 2024) tech demand volume.
• The tech openings for November 2025 have a 40% freshness index, with less than half of all openings being published or refreshed in the last 2-week period. In comparison, the month of October 2025 had a 43% freshness index, and same period last year had a 42% freshness of postings. The MoM drop in freshness of postings is attributed to the lower velocity of fresh demand coming into the market.
• Full-time tech openings at 85K account for 78% of total openings and have marginally increased by 1% compared to October 2025. While overall demand remains low to moderate in the tech sector, the demand for full-time engagement of talent remains high. Other types of engagement, like contract, part- time, and internships, remain low overall, with a YoY drop of 20% to 22%.
• Mid-Senior openings account for 58% of all active openings and have registered a 4% rise in volume compared to the previous month. Opportunities for entry-level tech talent up to 2 years of experience show a 8% MoM growth with 14K active volume.
• Demand from the IT Services cohort, as the key talent consumer, has remained stagnant with a total active volume of 43K openings. This is a minor 2.0% rise over the previous month’s demand volume from the services cohort. On a YoY basis, the current demand is lower by 21.0% compared to demand seen a year ago in November 2024. Sustained headwinds in global tech spends and new challenges in key market like USA, continue to keep the India’s IT Services cohort under pressure.
• The active tech talent demand from GCCs Cohort at 12K accounts for 12% of total demand and has grown by 9% compared to the previous month. The overall movement in GCC’s demand volume has seen a 4% YoY rise in active tech demand from the cohort.
• Functionally, the core Tech & Engineering functions dominate active demand with a 63% contribution. The demand for tech and engineering talent has grown by 7.0% MoM but has dropped 24% YoY in this cluster of openings.
• Associated functions like Tech BD, Sales, Project Management and Marketing functions have seen a drop in demand compared to the previous month. The Consulting & Advisory function’s demand has dropped 20% MoM, despite an 10% rise over last year’s demand volume. Tech BD, Sales & Marketing function has seen a 8% drop MoM but a 2% growth YoY.
• Geographically, 72% of active demand is concentrated in and around the megacities collective. Despite the overall majority contribution, the volume of demand on a YoY basis has dropped 34%, while the demand from Tier 2 & Tier 3 locations has grown 1% YoY.
• Full-time work from office (WFO) openings account for 70% of all active tech openings in the market. WFO demand has dropped by 7% compared to the previous month and dropped 11% on a YoY basis. A change in the mix of WFO and full-time remote and hybrid openings continues.
• Full-time Remote openings have dropped 15% MoM, while Hybrid mode openings increased 25% MoM.
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