By CIO Insider Team
 

India's technology job market was significantly affected in June 2026, leading to a sharp decrease in active hiring demand which was at its lowest level within 28 months. The major factors contributing to reduced recruitment plans were global uncertainty and cautious corporate spending.

As per Xpheno's Active Tech Jobs Outlook India report, the country had nearly 93,000 active technology job openings in June, depicting a 14% decline on a monthly basis and a 17% year-on-year decrease, the largest annual contraction in recent times.

This decline has in fact driven talent acquisition demand down to the frontier level of January 2024, which is an indication of how deeply the Indian technology sector is experiencing a ramp-down.

Key Highlights:

• The demand for technology hires was at a 28-month low with the number of active job vacancies standing at about 93,000 in June 2026.
• Entry-level hiring experienced the biggest downturn, while IT services, start-ups, and consultancy firms cut down on hiring.
• Hiring was slow due to global uncertainties and cautious spending, but Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities witnessed an increase in technology jobs.

Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, sees the downturn mainly resulting from the uncertainty in the US market which is a major source of demand for India's IT sector. Changing enterprise priorities, stricter hiring budgets and the overall macroeconomic situation are some of the reasons that have led the companies to live a little more cautiously especially in the talent acquisition aspect.

The paper also discussed the problem of global tech talent mobility. Due to the uncertainty surrounding the US H-1B visa holders, the return migration to India may double, which will only mean more pressure on the already soft domestic job market.

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Analyzing hiring patterns more thoroughly brings out weaknesses in the various hiring categories. Full-time jobs were still the leading type at 68, 000 available positions; however, they still saw a 15 per cent month-to-month drop. The number of contract and flexible jobs decreased as well, whereas internship and part-time work didn't change much.

The level of experience also reflected the same narrative. Mid-senior level professionals still made up about half of all job postings, yet the demand in this level also dropped by double digits. Hiring at entry-level was most severely affected, declining 23 per cent month-to-month and 44 per cent year-to-year, indicating a significant drop in the recruitment of fresh talent by companies.

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Sector-wise, the largest sector for hiring was IT services sector with 36, 000 openings, however, the figure went down by 16 per cent from the previous month and there was a big drop of 31 per cent from the previous year. Software products companies and Global Capability Centres (GCCs) showed their demand which was relatively stable; however, they both kept slipping. Start-ups and consulting firms even saw their numbers fall very sharply.

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The country's largest technology hubs Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai still together formed a major part of openings. However, even these recruitment strongholds witnessed widespread declines.