Non-tech sector continues to hire more vs tech sector, says Xpheno

India’s technology sector hiring trend continued to be in the slow lane for the third consecutive year, said a report. The tech sector’s current contribution to India’s total active talent demand is 48 per cent, below the 50 per cent mark for three years, said Xpheno — a specialist staffing firm.

 

The non-tech sector collective continues to hold the majority contributor status (52 per cent), which it took over from the tech sector in October 2022.

 

According to Xpheno’s data, October’s tech demand outlook shows a 3 per cent rise over openings in September 2025. However, the overall dip in tech hiring activity continues, with October 2025’s outlook being 27 per cent lower than last year’s (October 2024) tech demand volume.

 

The tech sector continues to witness a downward trajectory in active talent demand volume. The number of active openings in the sector has remained sluggish over the last four months.

 

The report highlighted that tech openings for October 2025 have a 43 per cent freshness index, with less than half of all openings being published or refreshed in the last two-week period. In comparison, September 2025 had a 37 per cent freshness index, and the same period last year had a 45 per cent freshness of postings. The month-on-month rise in freshness of postings is attributed to the quarter-end cleanup and refresh of openings and hiring plans.

 

“Demand from the IT services cohort, as the key talent consumer, has dropped further with a total active volume of 42,000 openings. This is a 2 per cent drop over the previous month’s demand volume from the services cohort. On a year-on-year basis, the current demand is lower by 24 per cent compared to demand seen a year ago in October 2024. The sustained headwinds in global tech spends and new challenges in key markets like the US continue to keep India’s IT services cohort under pressure,” said the report.

 

The active tech talent demand from the GCC cohort, at 11,000, accounts for 10 per cent of total demand and has dropped 11 per cent compared to the previous month. The overall movement in GCC demand volume has seen a 2 per cent year-on-year rise in active tech demand from the cohort.

 

Functionally, the core tech and engineering functions dominate active demand with a 57 per cent contribution. The demand for and intake of tech and engineering talent has dropped by 2 per cent month-on-month and 25 per cent year-on-year in this cluster of openings.