Logistics, Mobility and Quick Commerce post 30 percent hiring growth in 2025

India’s hiring landscape in 2025 delivered a recovery that was real but uneven, with the strongest momentum concentrated in sectors tied to consumption and day to day demand. According to Balasubramanian A, Senior Vice President at TeamLease Services, the fastest rebound came from media and marketing, where companies “quietly rebuilt content, creative, social and performance teams” after ad spends stabilised.

Entry and mid level hiring moved faster than senior roles as brands regained confidence and rebuilt digital-first capabilities. FMCG also delivered a steady, broad-based uptick. “Frontline sales and distribution demand shot up,” he said, describing how Tier 2 and 3 consumption, modern trade expansion and the return of staples to steady growth created continuous hiring for representatives, merchandisers and supervisors. The sector’s intent remained consistently positive across both halves of the TeamLease Employment Outlook.

Logistics, Mobility and Quick Commerce Become the Year’s Fastest-Growing Category

If FMCG and marketing represented steady revival, logistics and mobility represented acceleration. Kartik Narayan, CEO of the Jobs Marketplace at Apna, described delivery, mobility and fulfillment-led roles as the single strongest driver of the year, noting that “delivery, logistics, mobility, and fulfillment-led roles grew over 30 percent YoY.” Warehousing, field coordination and supply chain functions expanded rapidly, making this the highest-growth category of 2025 and reinforcing how India’s consumption economy continued to boom beyond metros.

BFSI Stays One of India’s Strongest Hiring Engines

BFSI maintained its position as one of the country’s most consistent demand centers. Hiring in the sector grew 12 to 15 percent year on year, driven by operational, credit, verification and field roles. Narayan said BFSI remained a significant contributor to overall hiring activity on Apna, underlining how the sector has become one of India’s most reliable and broad-based job generators.

Tech and AI Stay Cautious Despite the Noise

In contrast to the surge in consumption-led sectors, tech and AI hiring remained measured and selective. From Balasubramanian's perspective, “the surprise was actually how cautious hiring stayed.” Companies avoided large headcount additions and focused instead on productivity gains, internal upskilling and selective hiring. Narayan described the broader market shift as a move from “Scale-at-all-Costs” to “Capability-Led Maturity,” as companies emphasised efficiency, role value and return on investment. India retained one of the world’s strongest hiring intents overall, but tech hiring rose only in depth, not volume. GCCs expanded by a measured 10 percent in Tier 1 cities and increasingly diversified into Tier 2 hubs to access cost-efficient but skilled talent. Hiring concentrated in areas such as cloud optimisation, FinOps, AI-enabled workflows and global compliance.

AI Deployment Talent Commands Heavy Premiums

No part of the hiring landscape saw sharper contrasts than AI. Narayan described the talent market as a “Quality vs. Quantity paradox,” with India facing more than a 50 percent talent gap in AI-related roles. Despite thousands of applicants, nearly “90 percent of specialized roles of Gen-AI, ML-Ops positions remain hard to fill” because companies need production-grade capability, not theoretical exposure. This shortage reshaped compensation dramatically. Theoretical AI knowledge commanded a 25 to 30 percent premium, but candidates who had actually deployed models in production earned 30 to 50 percent above standard market salaries. Roles in ML Ops and Gen AI integration commanded an additional 30 to 40 percent premium, while AI leadership roles such as Head of AI and AI Architect saw compensation “jump by 60 to 80 percent.” Narayan called this the “Deployment Dividend,” reflecting exponential hikes in cash, bonuses and ESOPs for engineers who can drive real AI outcomes.

Roles That Shrunk and Roles That Quietly Became Mainstream

Even as AI surged, several roles contracted. Balasubramanian noted that “general entry level developer roles continued to shrink” as companies leaned more heavily on automation and productivity tools. “Generalist data engineering roles” remained visible but lost real demand, while standalone prompt engineering “faded” as prompting became a skill embedded inside product, analytics and engineering functions rather than a job title. At the same time, new mainstream roles emerged quietly across sectors. AI product and program managers became standard in traditional industries embedding AI into workflows. ML deployment and MLOps engineers saw steady demand as companies moved from pilot experimentation to production. Performance marketing, revenue operations and analytics roles became core to marketing teams seeking measurable ROI. Frontline sourcing and gig workforce operations also became a major capability across FMCG, retail, logistics and ecommerce, fully aligned with the momentum captured in both cycles of the TeamLease Employment Outlook.

Tech Salaries Reset as the Pandemic-Era Bubble Burst

For mid level tech talent, 2025 became the year of correction. Balasubramanian said compensation “fully reset from the inflated 2021 to 22 cycle.” Mid level talent received modest hikes, tighter salary bands and fewer joining bonuses. The only roles that continued to command premiums were senior ML engineers, end to end data specialists and deep infrastructure roles tied directly to revenue and reliability.

Tier 2 Cities Become India’s Smart Hiring Hedge

One of the most defining structural shifts came from the geography of hiring. Companies increasingly looked beyond metros in search of sustainable, skilled workforce pools. Narayan noted that Tier 2 cities like Coimbatore, Kochi, Bhubaneswar and Ahmedabad recorded “8 to 9 percent QoQ growth in hiring,” making them essential hubs for cost-efficient capability. GCCs and SaaS firms particularly strengthened their presence in these locations as part of a deeper talent diversification strategy.

Outside the headline sectors, several categories provided continuous, high-volume demand through the year. Manufacturing and engineering grew 15 to 18 percent year on year, supported by sustained need for production, quality and maintenance roles. Retail, BPO, IT-ES, healthcare and staffing remained stable categories generating some of the highest activity on the Apna platform. The education and training sector recorded a 10 to 15 percent rise in applicant interest, reflecting a shift in how jobseekers consider vocational and academic roles. The gaming sector underwent a reset after regulatory shifts in real-money gaming, redirecting hiring into content creation, mobile development, art, design, QA and testing.

A Better Year Than 2024, But Not a Boom

Balasubramanian summed up the year with clarity: “2025 was better, but uneven.” Hiring grew meaningfully in FMCG, retail, logistics, healthcare, media and marketing. Tech saw “more optical recovery” marked by announcements rather than large net additions. Companies focused on efficiency, reskilling and selective hiring instead of rebuilding large teams. The true story of 2025 was a disciplined recovery driven by sectors with real consumer demand, while tech remained measured, intentional and sharply capability focused.