India's job postings down 15% in July, tech demand steady despite slowdown

India's job postings dropped in July 2025 with declines across several sectors, though tech hiring held firm as experts debated tariff-linked job loss risks

India’s formal job market showed signs of cooling in July 2025, with postings on hiring platform Indeed down 5.8 per cent after two months of growth. Postings fell 14.9 per cent on a year-on-year basis and have declined 21 per cent since peaking in January 2023, Indeed said.

 

Skill pays the bill

Despite the slowdown, demand for high-skilled roles remains firm. Technology continues to account for a significant share of hiring, with software development alone making up one in five formal postings, Indeed said.

 

“Even when overall hiring slows, tech remains the heartbeat of India’s job market. With one in five formal postings for software development, the real challenge isn’t demand, it’s whether we can build a workforce skilled enough to meet it,” said Callam Pickering, Indeed’s APAC Senior Economist.

   

Over the past three months, postings for data and analytics rose by 15.4 per cent, while logistics support increased by 14.3 per cent. Other areas of growth included therapy (13.7 per cent) and dental (13.6 per cent). By contrast, demand for medical information roles (-12.3 per cent), pharmacy (-10.7 per cent), education and instruction (-8.0 per cent), and physicians and surgeons (-7.8 per cent) fell.

 

India Inc avoids pay disclosure

The report also highlighted a decline in pay transparency, with only 45 per cent of job postings on Indeed including salary details, down from more than half earlier this year.

 

In technology roles, transparency is particularly limited: only 18.3 per cent of software development postings, 18.2 per cent of IT systems and solutions roles, and 28 per cent of IT infrastructure and support listings contained salary information.

 

While overall postings remain 70 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels, the data points to both a cyclical cooling of the labour market and the continued emphasis on high-skilled hiring.

 

Tariff hit?

While it cannot be concluded whether the United States-imposed 50 per cent tariff on India is the driving force behind the hiring slowdown, many experts have suggested so.

 

In an interview with Moneycontrol, S Mahendra Dev, Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), said the tariffs were likely to have a greater impact on jobs compared to overall growth.

 

Moreover, Genius HRTech’s Founder, Chairman and Managing Director RP Yadav told PTI that between 200,000 and 300,000 jobs could be at immediate risk if the tariff regime continues beyond the next six months. He warned that textiles, a labour-intensive sector, alone might shed around 100,000 jobs.

 

In contrast, TeamLease Services’ Senior Vice President Balasubramanian Anantha Narayanan offered a different view, arguing that widespread job losses were unlikely since India’s economy is driven largely by domestic consumption, unlike China’s.

 

Unemployment rate eases in July

India’s total unemployment rate declined to 5.2 per cent in July from 5.6 per cent a month earlier, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The fall was driven by stronger rural hiring ahead of the festival season and increased agricultural activity.

 

For individuals aged 15 years and above, the rural jobless rate dropped to 4.4 per cent in July from 4.9 per cent in June. In urban areas, however, unemployment inched up to 7.2 per cent from 7.1 per cent.

 

Among youth aged 15 to 29 years, the unemployment rate in cities rose to 19 per cent in July from 18.8 per cent in June, while in rural areas it declined to 13 per cent from 13.8 per cent a month earlier. The rate had stood at 13.7 per cent in May.