Tech jobs rise to 1,19,000 in March, but freshers still struggle to find roles

With growing uncertainty in the job market due to artificial intelligence and waves of layoffs, thousands of engineering graduates entering India’s tech workforce this year are facing a difficult reality: the market is hiring, but not necessarily for them.

India's tech sector recorded 119,000 active job openings in March 2026, a 9% jump from February and the highest demand seen in over three quarters, according to the Active Tech Jobs Outlook – March 2026 report by Xpheno, a specialist staffing firm. However, beneath this recovery lies a market that is increasingly prioritising experienced professionals, leaving fewer opportunities for fresh talent

Of the 1,19,000 openings, only 15,000 are entry-level roles, positions accessible to graduates with up to two years of experience. That figure is 10% lower than the same period last year. Mid-senior roles, by contrast, account for 63,000 openings, that is more than half the entire market, and has grown 5% month-on-month.

The report also points that overall, the market, while showing month-on-month improvement, remains 19% lower than in March 2025. The sector has shown a downward trajectory since the second half of 2022. "This sustained positive movement in active openings is a sign of a potential near-term recovery in talent demand from the tech sector," said Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno. "It is an encouraging movement amidst the overall degrowth trajectory seen in the sector since the latter half of 2022."

Cities Tell Their Own Story

The geography of this slowdown adds another layer, and for graduates who moved to India's tech capitals chasing opportunity, it is a stark one.

Bengaluru, dominates with around 28,000 active openings, but is down 12% year-on-year. The drop is even sharper in other places. Hyderabad has fallen 33%, Pune is down 35%, Chennai is down 29% and Delhi NCR has contracted by 42% compared to March 2025, the steepest decline among major cities according to the report.

Collectively, India's megacities account for 76,000 openings but their combined volume has dropped 30% year-on-year. Which simply means the cities that defined the ambition of a generation of tech aspirants are now hiring at a fraction of what they once did.

Whereas, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities account for 43,000 openings, grown 10% month-on-month with a year-on-year decline of just 7%, showing more resilience than megacities.

Who Is Still Hiring, And Why

IT Services, historically the largest employer of tech talent and the sector that absorbed generations of engineering graduates, accounts for 46,000 openings but is down 16% year-on-year. Karanth noted that "market conditions and AI impact continue to keep India's IT Services cohort under pressure on the talent action front", pressure being felt most acutely at the entry point.

Global Capability Centres are one of the few cohorts showing year-on-year growth, at 19,000 openings, up 6% both month-on-month and year-on-year. Software product companies sit at 24,000 openings, up 14% from February. The Big 4 and Big 10 consulting firms' tech functions, at 6,000 openings, have grown 20% month-on-month — quietly holding their ground.

The Deeper Shift

Perhaps the most structurally significant finding in the report is that for the first time, the tech sector itself accounts for only 47% of active Tech and Engineering role openings across India. The remaining 53% of demand for technical talent is now coming from non-tech industries like banking, manufacturing, retail, and healthcare, all building their own technology capabilities. This represents a 12 percentage point shift over just three quarters.

"Are non-tech functions driving the recovery in the tech sector's active demand? Is the impact and promise of AI behind the changing functional mix?" Karanth asked, flagging it as one of the defining questions for the market going forward.

For a fresh graduate, that may eventually mean more doors. For now, it means a market is in transition, and the most coveted opportunities increasingly go to those who have already walked through a door once before.