India tech hiring slips 24% year-on-year at start of 2026, Xpheno data shows

India’s technology hiring started 2026 on a softer footing, with active tech job openings falling 24% year-on-year to about 1.03 lakh roles, according to a January 2026 outlook by specialist staffing firm Xpheno. The data suggests that hiring intent remains subdued after a weak 2025, with only limited signs of a broad-based recovery.

The report noted that demand also dipped marginally on a month-on-month basis, reinforcing the view that the sector has not yet returned to the elevated hiring environment seen earlier in the decade. When compared with peak periods in early 2022—when openings crossed 2.6 lakh—the current demand level indicates a prolonged cool-off in the market.

A key takeaway is that the slowdown is not uniform across all employer categories. IT services firms—often the largest consumers of tech talent—continue to see restrained demand, reflecting softer global technology spending and uncertainty in major client markets. The effect is typically felt most strongly in mid-senior and senior positions, where hiring cycles are longer and budgets are more sensitive to client pipelines.

At the same time, global capability centres (GCCs) emerged as a relative bright spot, with their demand showing improvement compared with the previous month in the same dataset. This suggests that while broad-based hiring is weak, certain pockets—especially captive centres aligned to long-term transformation programmes—may still be investing selectively in critical talent.

City-wise, large tech hubs continue to account for the bulk of openings, but the overall contraction indicates that concentration does not shield markets from cyclical slowdowns. In hiring terms, this usually translates into tougher competition for fewer roles, longer time-to-hire in specific specialisations and increased emphasis on skills that map directly to revenue-generating projects.

For jobseekers, the data implies that outcomes may increasingly depend on where demand is holding up—such as data engineering, cybersecurity, AI-enabled product work and transformation roles within non-tech industries—rather than across-the-board software hiring. For companies, it signals a market that rewards sharper workforce planning, targeted skilling and clearer role definition.

As 2026 progresses, the next indicator to watch will be whether demand stabilises and whether GCC growth offsets muted IT services hiring. The report’s headline number, however, makes one point clear: tech hiring is no longer the easy growth story it once was, at least in the near term.