NEW DELHI: The white-collar job market has come under pressure in FY27 with hiring falling for the third straight month in July when recruitment activity recorded its sharpest decline of the financial year. According to the latest foundit Insights Tracker (fit), white-collar hiring dropped 12% year-on-year in July following contractions of 4% in May and 9% in June. After a 4% jump in April, the hiring index has slipped steadily from 370 in April to 348 in May, 331 in June and 314 in July, highlighting a weakening recruitment demand.
The report pointed to a broad-based slowdown in the job market as 18 out of the 26 industries tracked by foundit reported lower hiring in July with export-oriented sectors leading the decline. For instance, logistics & transportation recorded the steepest annual fall at 25%, while retail, chemicals & plastics and printing & packaging each contracted around 20%. The fresher hiring too declined by 10% year-on-year last month, but it was shallower than the drop in overall market.
Despite the slowdown, employers have not pulled back completely. Instead, they are focussing on recruiting people for specialised and technical roles, particularly in healthcare, engineering, IT and global capability centres (GCCs), while reducing general commercial functions. The report also highlighted rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related roles, especially among freshers.
“Companies are not cutting everywhere. They are paying for specialist and technical skills while trimming the general commercial roles they added during the last growth run. Sales and senior management lost ground; medical and marketing roles gained it,” the report noted.
The shift towards specialised hiring is also reflected in fresher salaries. The report stated that two-thirds of entry-level roles are paid below Rs 5 lakh per annum (concentrated in sales, customer support, operations, retail and entry-level services). On the other end, 12% of fresher roles offer Rs 8 lakh or more – and these cluster tightly in AI, data science, cybersecurity, semiconductor and product engineering.
Defying the slowdown, travel & tourism remained the strongest-performing sector posting 17% annual hiring growth on the back of robust domestic leisure demand. The hiring also rose in automotive sector (by 10%) on the back of electric vehicle manufacturing and localisation initiatives. In addition, healthcare & pharmaceuticals and real estate registered modest hiring growth of 8% each.
As per foundit, AI-led roles now account for 4% of entry-level hiring, up from around 1% a year ago. Rather than hiring graduates primarily to build AI models, employers are increasingly recruiting talent to operate, validate and optimise AI systems. Further, the data suggests that technology roles are increasingly being created outside traditional IT companies – inside banks, manufacturers, healthcare firms and GCCs.
“Tier-II cities held up better than the national picture. Against an overall index down 12% year-on-year, Coimbatore, Jaipur and Kochi each declined by around 1-2% supported by IT services, GCC expansion, engineering and BFSI operations,” the report said.
Source: The Financial Express
