# Indian tech hiring rises 10%, but entry-level IT jobs shrink 2026-08-21T18:30:42+00:00 | Business & Economy | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet (2 source reports) Technology hiring in India grew 10 per cent year-on-year, yet entry-level IT roles are declining sharply, a report from job site foundit said on Thursday. The IT industry's share of fresher hiring fell from 32 per cent to 24 per cent, with one in four entry-level IT jobs disappearing over the past year. AI-led roles now account for 4 per cent of entry-level hiring, up from about 1 per cent a year ago, as employers recruit talent to operate and optimise AI systems rather than build models. A separate Nomura report confirms the K-shaped split in India's labour market: AI has created 131,000 jobs in Asia against 61,000 lost, but the new roles are in technology, data annotation and linguistics, while routine back-office and junior coding jobs are most vulnerable. Nomura notes that companies are adjusting to AI through 'silent firing', reduced campus recruitment and slower hiring, rather than mass layoffs. In India, net IT sector hiring fell from around 600,000 in FY22 to 140,000 in FY26, according to staffing firm Xpheno. The foundit report shows the 7-10-year experience band was the only cohort to grow, up 11 per cent year-on-year, while fresher hiring overall declined 10 per cent annually. STEM graduates still account for 42 per cent of fresher hiring. Nomura warns that the impact on labour markets could change considerably as AI evolves from task automation towards agentic systems. ## Indian Opinion Analysis ETHRWorld leads with the aggregate hiring growth and quotes the foundit CEO on long-term capability building, framing the data as a strategic investment story. CFO Today's Nomura-based report foregrounds the squeeze on freshers and 'silent firing', giving space to the Bank of Korea's youth employment decline and the vulnerability of back-office jobs. ETHRWorld understates the structural shift by focusing on the 10 per cent rise in the occupation index, CFO Today overstates the crisis by citing South Korean data that may not fully transfer to India. The measured read: both reports agree on a K-shaped market where experienced hires gain while freshers lose, and the key number to watch is whether AI-related job creation outside technology (currently under 10 per cent of new roles) expands in the next year. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 1 government-critical, 1 neutral - hr.economictimes.indiatimes.com (neutral report) Leads with overall hiring growth and CEO quote, no critical framing of the decline in entry-level roles - cfo.economictimes.indiatimes.com (government critical) Foregrounds 'silent firing' and K-shaped split, cites declining net IT hiring as a policy concern This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above. Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources. Last updated 2026-08-24T08:02:23+00:00. Tags: AI jobs, foundit, fresher hiring, India, IT hiring Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/tech-hiring-up-10-but-entry-level-it-roles-shrink-report-finds/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/tech-hiring-up-10-but-entry-level-it-roles-shrink-report-finds/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/