White Collar Jobs: Amid Signs Of Recovery, Freshers Continue To Hurt

White collar hiring is showing signs of a pickup, but fresher hiring continues to lag. This fiscal is showing some signs of improvement, though progress remains patchy.

The last financial year saw even premier management and engineering colleges being unable to place their students. Information technology, too, saw jobs that were few and far in between after the sector was the largest job creator during the pandemic years.

With 73% of the employers actively hiring between April and June in white collar jobs — a 7% increase from the previous quarter — there is a clear momentum building in key sectors despite broader economic challenges, according to the latest Indeed Hiring Tracker.

Foundit Insights tracker, too, showed a rise of 11% annually in July, though it showed a sequential decline of 1% from the previous month.

Things are definitely looking better this year compared to a year ago. The year before last saw significant over hiring, especially in IT which tends to dominate fresher hiring, according to Sashi Kumar, head of sales India at Indeed.com.

Then last year, because of global geopolitical tensions, inflation and general softness in the economy, hiring declined by about a fifth. Now, while hiring has definitely not come back to normal, it is showing signs of recovery, with the increase being more sustained at lateral levels, when compared to fresher hiring, Kumar said.

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Fresher Hiring: Still To Recover

Fresher hiring, which took the maximum hit last year, remains low. Even on an annual basis, hiring for those with 0–3 years of experience continues to contract. It fell by 7% in August on an annual basis, according to the Naukri JobSpeak Index. The index contracted by 3% on an aggregate for the month.

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IT Hiring: Signs Of Pick Up

After a robust 20–22% growth in 2021–22, hiring slowed by 18–20% in 2022–23 due to economic challenges and cautious spending. However, there has been a positive shift over the past year, with an 8–10% increase driven by demand in generative AI, cybersecurity and cloud computing, Kumar said.

While hiring has not fully returned to peak levels, the industry is steadily recovering and showing strong potential for future growth, he added.

Salary growth in IT has slowed, with raises averaging 7–9% in 2023 and 2024, down from 8.8% in 2021 and 9.8–10% in 2022, according to data from Indeed.

While this is due to higher business costs, inflation, and investments in new technology, IT services companies are working with lower margins and are now focused on managing costs while still attracting talent, Kumar said.

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