India’s White-Collar Hiring Outlook Improves for the Second Half of 2026

India's white-collar employment market is expected to continue growing during the second half of 2026. According to Naukri's H2 2026 Hiring Outlook survey, 79% of senior HR leaders expect new jobs to be created, while 97% believe hiring activity will continue.

The survey gathered responses from more than 540 senior HR leaders and hiring decision-makers. Real estate showed the highest expectations for job creation, with 86% of HR leaders anticipating new roles. FMCG followed at 85%, while 83% of respondents in IT and technology expected job growth.

Manufacturing and healthcare each recorded a 79% expectation for new job creation. In BFSI, 72% of HR leaders expected companies to introduce new roles.

Business Development is expected to be one of the most active hiring areas, followed by Marketing and IT. The survey found that 45% of HR leaders identified Business Development as a key recruitment area, compared with 37% for Marketing and 31% for IT.

Early-career professionals are also expected to remain in demand. Around 62% of HR leaders expect the highest hiring activity among professionals with zero to three years of experience, while 57% expect strong demand for candidates with four to seven years of experience. BFSI, healthcare and IT are expected to be among the sectors driving entry-level recruitment.

The survey also suggests that AI is not expected to cause major job losses in the immediate future. Eighty-six percent of HR leaders said they do not anticipate significant employment losses because of AI. More than 20% of respondents in IT and BFSI expect AI to generate new positions over the next six months, particularly in IT, marketing and analytics.

At the same time, finding candidates with skills that match changing job requirements remains a major challenge. This was identified by 31% of HR leaders, highlighting the growing importance of continuous skill development as new skills emerge and existing ones become outdated more quickly.

The survey further found that 83% of HR leaders expect attrition to stay below 15% over the next six months. Meanwhile, 58% expect average salary increases to remain below 10%.