Entry-level engineers face hiring gap as firms seek experience: foundit

Engineers with up to three years of experience comprise 45 per cent of active candidates but only 28 per cent of jobs, translating to 9.5 candidates per opening

India’s engineering market faces a widening talent mismatch: Professionals with zero to three years of experience account for 45 per cent of candidates but just 28 per cent of jobs, according to a report released by foundit on Tuesday.

 

The supply-demand equation changes considerably with experience, said the job and talents platform in the report released on Engineers’ Day 2026. There are 9.5 candidates for every engineering job at the zero-to-three-year level, compared with roughly four to five candidates per job across all experience cohorts beyond three years.

 

Engineers with four to 10 years of experience account for 54 per cent of engineering jobs, despite representing about 42 per cent of the active candidate pool.

  

Overall, the August 2026 estimated snapshot shows 3.959 million active engineering candidates against 668,000 jobs requiring an engineering background, translating to 5.9 candidates for every job.

 

The aggregate ratio, however, varies significantly across engineering streams, ranging from around 1.2 candidates per job in automobile or automotive engineering to 11.5 in electronics and instrumentation.

 

“Engineering careers today are no longer defined by a single sector or traditional career path. As demand expands across technology, manufacturing, infrastructure, automotive, electronics and energy, engineers have a wider canvas to build their careers. The opportunity is to keep evolving with where industries are headed and apply their engineering foundation across emerging areas of demand,” said Tarun Sharma, chief product and technology officer, foundit.

 

Candidate availability is highest at the beginning of an engineering career and tightens considerably beyond three years of experience.

 

While engineers with zero to three years of experience form the largest candidate pool, the candidate-to-job ratio more than halves by the 15-plus-years cohort, from 9.5 to 4.1.

 

Technology remains the largest single destination for engineers, but most engineering opportunities now lie outside it.

 

Information technology (IT), software and services, and global capability centres account for 33 per cent of engineering jobs, while the remaining 67 per cent span other industries.

 

Manufacturing and industrial companies are the second-largest destination, accounting for 15 per cent of opportunities, followed by construction, engineering and real estate at 13 per cent.

 

Electronics and semiconductors, automotive and electric vehicles, and energy, power and renewables together account for another 26 per cent of opportunities.

 

The overall availability of 5.9 candidates per engineering job also changes sharply by specialisation.

 

Computer science/IT, despite being the largest individual engineering talent pool, is close to the overall market average, with 5.8 candidates per job.

 

At the other end, electronics and communication/telecom and electronics and instrumentation have 10.9 and 11.5 candidates per opportunity, respectively.

 

Bengaluru remains India’s largest individual engineering hiring hub, accounting for 19 per cent of opportunities, or 127,000 jobs.

 

Delhi-NCR follows with a 13 per cent share, Hyderabad with 12 per cent, Pune with 10 per cent, Chennai with 9 per cent and Mumbai with 8 per cent.