Hiring in India Rises 12% In February on AI Push, IT Sector Recovery

India’s formal white-collar job market strengthened in February 2026, registering double-digit growth on the back of renewed IT hiring and a sharp rise in roles tied to artificial intelligence. The Naukri JobSpeak Index, the monthly gauge of hiring activity on the Naukri platform, read 3,233 points in February, a clear step up from 2,890 a year earlier. What does that jump mean for jobseekers, employers and the wider labour market?

What Do The Numbers Show?

The headline figure is a 12% year-on-year increase in white-collar hiring for February 2026. Month-on-month, the index accelerated sharply too: February’s reading was about 23% higher than January's, indicating an unusually strong seasonal pickup. Those moves are based on new job postings and recruiter searches on the Naukri platform.

Breakdowns in the JobSpeak report show the recovery is weighted toward higher-skill and higher-pay segments. IT hiring returned to growth, with the IT vertical up roughly 6% year-on-year in February, while AI/ML roles surged at a much faster clip.

Reported jumps range from about 40% to 49% year-on-year across outlets citing the same dataset, highlighting the premium employers are placing on specialised AI talent. Freshers’ hiring also improved, with entry-level recruitment reported up around 8% in the IT space.

Which Sectors And Cities Are Driving Demand?

While IT and AI dominate the narrative, the report shows momentum across several non-IT industries. Insurance, BPO/ITES, real estate, hospitality and retail registered notable year-on-year gains (insurance reported the strongest growth among these).

Domestic multinational companies led hiring expansion; overall hiring by Indian MNCs was up about 24%, and their AI/ML hiring grew substantially faster than foreign MNCs (Indian MNC AI hiring +82% vs +43% for foreign MNCs). Higher salary bands saw robust growth: roles in the ₹20+ lakh-per-annum bracket rose in double digits, signalling concentrated demand for senior and specialised talent.

Geography remains concentrated: Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai account for the plurality of AI-linked vacancies, together representing roughly two-thirds of active AI job listings in recent analyses. That spatial concentration reinforces metropolitan incumbency in high-value tech hiring even as fresher demand spreads to emerging non-metro hubs.

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What Does This Mean For The MNCs In India?

Data points in February suggest the AI hiring wave is concentrated around specific roles, employers and locations rather than uniformly lifting hiring across the economy. AI/ML openings showed outsized percentage gains, while Indian MNCs were more aggressive in expanding AI teams.

At the same time, traditional IT roles below mid-salary bands remained relatively flat, implying a “hollowing-up” effect where premium, specialised positions and senior hires grow faster than bulk entry-level or commodity software jobs. Major global and domestic IT firms are planning headcount increases and data-centre investments, underlining sustained demand for cloud, data-engineering and AI skill sets that support enterprise transformation.

Sources

Business Standard

Economic Times