India’s white-collar hiring grew 14% year-on-year in October, with production and manufacturing sectors leading the surge. The auto industry saw the highest growth, while senior-level recruitment showed the fastest expansion across experience.
White-Collar Hiring Surge
Production and manufacturing roles led India’s white-collar recruitment activity in October, with total hiring expanding 14 per cent year-on-year (YoY), according to the latest Naukri JobSpeak report. The auto sector led the sectoral expansion with a 36 per cent rise, supported by strong gains across core industrial operations, while the overall index climbed to 2,836 compared to 2,480 recorded in October 2025. The higher YoY jump received support from a soft comparative festive base, as Diwali occurred in October last year and suppressed recruitment during those holiday periods. Across industries, production and manufacturing functions grew 39 per cent. Sectoral figures showed BPO and ITES expanding 17 per cent, followed by Banking and Financial Services at 16 per cent.
Hitesh Oberoi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Info Edge (India) Limited, said, “Some of October’s growth reflects last year’s festive-season base, and we should read it in that light. What’s encouraging is the kind of hiring we’re seeing. Manufacturing companies are building capacity, and demand for AI skills remains strong, indicative of the selective, fundamentals-led nature of hiring demand.”
Sectoral Performance
Auto and Industrial Growth
The auto industry reflected this operational focus prominently. Research and development recruitment in auto rose 53 per cent, procurement and supply chain grew 50 per cent, and production and manufacturing roles advanced 41 per cent. In contrast, auto sales and business development hiring increased by 7 per cent. Similar patterns emerged in heavy machinery, where production roles rose 40 per cent and quality assurance grew 41 per cent. In the construction, engineering, cement, and metals sector, production jobs increased 33 per cent, project and programme management grew 25 per cent, and site engineering rose 20 per cent. While FMCG grew 6 per cent overall, its production hiring jumped 40 per cent, and procurement climbed 20 per cent, even as its sales and business development intake declined 5 per cent.
BPO, IT, and Specialized Roles
The BPO and ITES sector expanded primarily through specialised business functions. Customer success, service, and operations hiring remained flat at zero per cent. In contrast, finance and accounting roles surged 84 per cent, sales and business development increased 43 per cent, and software engineering and QA grew 42 per cent. In technology, IT and software services grew 5 per cent, but AI and machine learning positions rose 32 per cent, while Global Capability Centres increased recruitment by 18 per cent. Broad software engineering and QA across all sectors rose 1 per cent.
Experience and Geography
Across experience brackets, senior hiring expanded the fastest, with both the 13 to 16 years and over 16 years categories rising 22 per cent. Fresher hiring grew 15 per cent. Geographically, Hyderabad led metros with 15 per cent growth, while Gujarat dominated emerging markets, led by Gandhinagar at 48 per cent, Surat at 36 per cent, Vadodara at 30 per cent, and Ahmedabad at 23 per cent.
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