Hiring in India in 2026: what Naukri JobSpeak, foundit and TeamLease say about fresher jobs by sector and city

In the first week of September 2026, two of India's best-known hiring indices published their August readings. Naukri JobSpeak said white-collar hiring grew 14% on the year, with fresher hiring leading. The foundit Insights Tracker said hiring activity was 10% lower than a year earlier, and that the 0 to 3 year band was among the weakest. If you are a fresher deciding where to apply, both cannot be the whole truth, and neither claims to be.

This post sets out what each source measures, what each said by sector, function and city, and how to use the parts they agree on. All figures are as of August 2026 unless stated.

Three sources, three different questions

• Naukri JobSpeak, published by Info Edge, is a monthly index of hiring activity based on new job postings on Naukri.com, including free job listings, and recruiter searches of its resume database. July 2008 is the base month, set at 1,000. It aggregates data from over 150,000 clients. Its methodology says it excludes gig employment, hyperlocal hiring and campus placements.
• The foundit Insights Tracker is foundit's own monthly reading of hiring activity in India, broken down by industry, functional area, city and experience band.
• TeamLease EdTech's Career Outlook Report is an employer survey. The edition for July to December 2026 is based on responses from 1,097 employers surveyed between May and July 2026, and measures hiring intent: the percentage of employers likely to hire fresh graduates during the six months.

One detail matters more than any headline for a fresher. Naukri's index leaves out campus placements, which is where a large part of graduate recruitment happens. A rise or fall in JobSpeak is a reading of off-campus hiring activity.

What Naukri JobSpeak said for August 2026

The index stood at 3,028 in August 2026, against 2,664 in August 2025, a 14% annual rise. It was down from 3,227 in July.

By experience, hiring for 0 to 3 years grew 15%, which the report attributes to non-IT sectors such as telecom and insurance. The other bands grew too: 10% for 4 to 7 years, 16% for 8 to 12 years, 18% for 13 to 15 years and 13% for more than 16 years. A month earlier, the July 2026 report had fresher hiring up 6%, driven by insurance and FMCG.

The report carries its own caveats, and they are worth reading. Its methodology notes that since free listings were included, hiring activity has seen a temporary uplift from higher participation by small and medium businesses, which it expects to normalise over the next few months. And Hitesh Oberoi, MD and CEO of Info Edge, pointed out in the report that a larger part of the festive period fell in August last year and shifted to September this year, so the underlying trend will be clearer after the festive quarter.

Where non-IT hiring grew

Annual change by sector in Naukri JobSpeak for August 2026:

• Auto: up 19%, driven by Pune (up 32%) and Mumbai (up 22%).
• Healthcare: up 16%, led by hiring at foreign MNCs (up 32%).
• Retail: up 15%.
• Insurance: up 12%, with fresher hiring in the sector up 37%.
• IT and software services: up 11%.
• Banking and financial services, and FMCG: up 10% each.
• BPO and ITES, real estate, and oil and gas: up 8% each.
• Telecom: up 6%. Pharma and biotech: up 2%.
• Hospitality: down 4%. Education: down 8%.
• Global capability centres grew 10%, and AI and machine learning roles grew 31%.

In July, the report had real estate up 8% with a 19% rise in fresher hiring, and insurance up 10%. Insurance has now led fresher growth two months running in Naukri's data. For someone outside engineering, the useful reading is that the sectors carrying the fresher numbers in this index are mostly not IT.

Cities in Naukri JobSpeak

• Hyderabad: up 23%, with hiring by global capability centres up 28%.
• Kolkata up 22%, Chennai up 20%, Bengaluru and Pune up 14% each, Delhi NCR up 10%, Mumbai up 7%.
• Among smaller cities, Gandhinagar rose 44%, Bhubaneswar 32%, Raipur 23%, Surat 21% and Coimbatore 17%.
• Coimbatore and Vadodara were named fresher hiring hotspots, with fresher hiring up 28% and 24%.
• Declines included Trivandrum (down 17%), Udaipur (down 14%), Chandigarh (down 12%) and Ludhiana (down 6%). Guwahati rose 5%.

What foundit said for the same month

foundit's tracker for August 2026, updated on 4 September 2026, stood 10% below its year-ago level, with a 5% rise on July. Only 5 of its 26 industries and 6 of its 13 functional areas grew on the year.

• Industries growing: Travel and Tourism up 22%, Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals up 16%, Real Estate up 10%, Automotive up 8%, Construction and Engineering up 5%.
• Industries falling: Import and Export down 27%, Logistics and Transportation down 22%, Chemicals and Plastics down 21%, Retail down 18%, BPO down 13%, IT software and services down 11%, and Manufacturing and BFSI down 3% each.
• Functions growing: Medical up 23%, Marketing and Communications up 20%, Legal up 9%, Engineering and Production up 7%, IT up 5%, Finance and Accounting up 4%.
• Functions falling: Senior Management down 13%, Creative down 12%, Sales and Business Development down 10%, HR and Admin down 5%, Procurement and Supply Chain down 5%, Hospitality down 4%.
• Experience: the 7 to 10 year band was the only one to grow, up 10%. The 0 to 3 year band fell 9%, 4 to 6 years 7%, 11 to 15 years 2% and 15 years and above 11%. foundit reads this as employers prioritising execution-ready, mid-career hires over both entry-level and very senior ones.
• Cities: Bengaluru up 5%, Hyderabad up 4%, Kochi and Chennai up 2% each, Delhi NCR up 1%, Mumbai flat, and Chandigarh down 18%, Kolkata down 12%, Pune down 7%, Ahmedabad down 5%, Jaipur down 4%.

Why the two indices disagree, and where they agree

They are measuring different platforms, with different employers posting on them, using different methods. Naukri says outright that including free listings has lifted its readings through more small and medium business activity. It also flags the festival shift into September. Neither is a count of jobs created in India, and both say they measure hiring activity.

The disagreements are sharp: retail is up 15% in one and down 18% in the other, IT is up 11% and down 11%, Kolkata is up 22% and down 12%, and the 0 to 3 year band is up 15% and down 9%. A fresher should not build a plan on any of those lines alone.

The agreements are more useful. Healthcare grew 16% in both. Real estate and automotive grew in both. Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and Delhi NCR grew in both. When two platforms with different methods point the same way, that is the closest thing to a signal this data offers.

What employers say they intend: TeamLease EdTech

An index measures activity. A survey measures intent. TeamLease EdTech's Career Outlook Report for July to December 2026 found that 75% of surveyed employers intend to hire freshers in the half-year, up from 73% in January to June 2026.

• By industry: e-commerce and technology start-ups 93%, retail 93%, manufacturing 89%, FMCG 86%, travel and hospitality 81%, IT 76% (down from 81%), power and energy 74%, engineering and infrastructure 66%, construction and real estate 64%, telecommunications 61%, marketing and advertising 59%, healthcare and pharmaceuticals 54%, logistics 53%, media and entertainment 52%, agriculture 25%, educational services 21% and consulting 19%.
• By city: Bangalore 89%, Mumbai 75%, Chennai 71%, Hyderabad 60%, Delhi 49%, Pune 41% and Ahmedabad 29%.
• Leading fresher roles: AI Application Developer, Jr. Semiconductor Design Engineer, Data Centre Operations Associate, Programmatic Advertising Associate, and Inventory and Dispatch Executive.

Intent is not hiring, and a high share of employers intending to hire says nothing about how many people each will hire. But retail is worth noticing: 93% intent in TeamLease, 15% growth in Naukri, and an 18% fall in foundit. That is a sector to research company by company, not to write off or bet on.

How a fresher should use this

• Trust the overlap. Healthcare, real estate and automotive grew on both indices, and so did Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi NCR.
• Remember what is missing. Campus placements are outside Naukri's index entirely, so an off-campus search is what these numbers describe.
• Look beyond IT. In Naukri's August data, the fresher growth came from sectors like insurance and telecom, and in TeamLease's survey the highest fresher intent is in retail, e-commerce, manufacturing and FMCG.
• Look beyond the metros. Coimbatore and Vadodara were named fresher hotspots in August.
• Compete with the mid-career bias foundit describes by showing execution-ready evidence: a campaign you ran, a reconciliation you built, a process you fixed.
• Start from roles that are open today: jobs in India, and by function marketing, finance, sales, operations, HR and customer success.

Where the indices disagree, employers are the tiebreak: the one you apply to decides on evidence, not on a monthly index. A verified skill gives a careful employer a reason to say yes.