India’s IT Hiring Stabilises as Campus and Mid-Senior Recruitment Picks Up

After a period of cautious hiring, India’s IT sector showed signs of stabilisation in the first half of FY 2025-26, driven by stronger campus recruitment and selective lateral hiring, according to HR solutions provider Adecco India.

Campus Hiring on the Rise
Campus recruitment across key engineering and technical institutes increased by 25% compared to H1 FY25, Adecco India’s Director and Business Head for Professional Staffing, Sanket Chengappa, told reporters. Companies are increasingly focusing on early engagement with campuses, ensuring new graduates are project-ready before joining client assignments—a shift from the traditional “hire-and-train” model.

Engineering, technical, and AI profiles saw a 27% increase in demand, with compensation levels rising about 5% year-on-year, reflecting the industry’s need for specialised skill sets.

Geographic Spread and Tier II Focus
While major IT hubs like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and the National Capital Region continue to attract the bulk of freshers, placements in tier II cities such as Coimbatore, Udaipur, Nagpur, Visakhapatnam, and Indore have risen 7%, signalling a broader geographic diversification in talent deployment.

Demand-Synced Workforce Planning
Chengappa highlighted that companies are now prioritising quality over scale, aligning hiring to active project pipelines. Critical roles include AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, cross-domain engineering, MLOps, and data engineering, with a persistent 45-50% demand-supply mismatch in these areas.

“IT hiring sentiment is cautious but goal-oriented,” Chengappa said. “Firms are focusing on depth of expertise, ensuring freshers are productive from day one rather than remaining on the bench.”

Lateral Hiring Trends
Mid-to-senior level recruitment, particularly in digital transformation, delivery leadership, and domain-specialist roles, has seen a 42% increase, reflecting the sector’s shift toward smaller, high-impact, outcome-oriented teams. Roles such as DevOps leads, SREs, analytics leads, and cross-functional specialists are prioritised over generalist positions, he noted.

Outlook for IT Hiring
As deal pipelines gain momentum, Adecco anticipates that overall IT hiring in Q3 FY26 will stabilise at around 45%, marking a gradual recovery for the sector. Companies are increasingly investing in skill-aligned, agile workforce strategies that balance immediate delivery needs with long-term talent development.