India’s technology sector has entered 2026 under sustained hiring pressure, with active tech job openings falling sharply to near five-year lows, signalling a prolonged slowdown after years of rapid expansion.
According to the Active Tech Jobs Outlook – India (January 2026) report released by specialist staffing firm Xpheno, active technology job openings declined 24% year-on-year to around 103,000 roles. This marks the second-lowest level of demand since January 2021, highlighting the depth and duration of the downturn.
Tech Hiring Remains Weak Entering 2026
Hiring momentum remained muted through the end of 2025 and showed little sign of revival at the start of the new year. Month-on-month, tech job openings slipped another 1% in January, indicating that companies are continuing to delay expansion plans amid global economic uncertainty.
At its peak in early 2022, India’s tech sector had more than 260,000 active job openings, driven by strong global demand for digital transformation, cloud services, and software exports. Current demand levels are now nearly 60% lower than that peak, underscoring how sharply conditions have reversed.
Prolonged Downturn, Limited Signs of Recovery
Commenting on the trend, Kamal Karanth, cofounder of Xpheno, said the slowdown has been both swift and difficult to reverse.
“The Indian tech sector that once dominated the country’s overall talent action seems to have caught a cold in late 2022 and continues to struggle with a low-to-no recovery trajectory,” Karanth said.
He added that the sector experienced the “sharpest and fastest rollback” once global headwinds emerged, including slowing enterprise spending, tighter funding conditions, and cautious outlooks in key overseas markets such as the US and Europe. Prospects of returning to earlier hiring volumes remain weak in the near term, he noted.
Tech’s Share of Overall Hiring Shifts
Despite the slowdown, technology roles still account for a significant portion of India’s hiring activity. The report shows that the tech sector’s contribution to total active job openings currently stands at 52%, crossing the 50% mark only for the second time in more than three years.
However, this does not reflect renewed strength within tech. Instead, it highlights how non-tech sectors have continued to outpace technology in job creation, gradually reducing the tech industry’s dominance in the overall employment landscape.
Full-Time Roles Decline, Flexible Hiring Remains Muted
Full-time positions continue to dominate tech hiring, with approximately 79,000 active openings. Yet even these roles saw a 5% month-on-month decline and were 24% lower than a year earlier, reflecting widespread caution among employers.
Meanwhile, contract, internship, and part-time roles remained subdued, suggesting that companies are not significantly increasing flexible or short-term hiring to compensate for reduced permanent recruitment.
What This Means for Job Seekers and the Industry
The ongoing slowdown signals a more competitive job market for tech professionals, particularly fresh graduates and mid-level engineers. Hiring is increasingly focused on critical skills, cost optimisation, and productivity gains rather than large-scale expansion.
For the industry, the data points to a structural reset rather than a temporary pause. While India remains a global technology hub, the sector’s hiring outlook in 2026 appears shaped by global demand cycles, client spending discipline, and automation-led efficiency gains.
Until macroeconomic conditions improve and enterprise tech spending rebounds, India’s tech hiring is likely to remain cautious, marking a clear departure from the hyper-growth era of the early 2020s.