India's white-collar job market grew 3% in August 2025, facilitating the role of the non-IT sector and AI/ML. Hyderabad is leading the metro employment.
White-collar jobs usually refer to professional, administrative or administrative roles, often requiring professional skills and higher education.
The insurance sector has grown with employment growth of 24%, hospitality (+22%) and real estate (+18%). Other sectors showing positive growth include BPO/ITE (+17%), education (+16%), oil and gas electricity (+7%), retail (+3%) and FMCG (+2%).
The role of AI/ML shows strong demand for professional talent in emerging technologies, witnessing a surge in recruitment by 54%.
In contrast, the IT/Software Services sector saw a 6% drop in overall employment. However, unicorns have defied this trend and recorded a 10% growth in employment.
Banking and financial services fell by 11%, while Telecom/ISP fell by 13%. The automotive sector also recorded a 3% decline.
Fresh employment (0-3 years of experience) increased by 7%, primarily driven by non-IT sectors such as hospitality, real estate and education.
Hyderabad has emerged as the top metro city for employment, witnessing a massive surge of 10% overall growth and 45% in unicorn recruitment.
“In August, two trends stand out: one is that the non-IT sector continues to lock in job market growth, a pattern that appears in recent months. The other is interesting, the emergence of Hyderabad as a hotbed for startup employment, becoming a major metro in terms of overall employment growth.
