India's job market for fresh graduates is undergoing a significant transformation, moving beyond its traditional reliance on the IT sector. While overall technology hiring saw a 10% year-on-year increase, the nature of entry-level opportunities is rapidly diversifying, driven by the expansion of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and the rise of AI-led roles.
The Shifting Landscape of Entry-Level Tech Jobs
Data from the foundit Insights Tracker (fit) for July 2026 reveals a notable shift: the IT sector's share in fresher hiring dropped sharply from 32% in 2025 to 24% in 2026. Conversely, GCCs significantly boosted their intake of entry-level talent, increasing their share from 8% to 11%, marking the biggest gain among employer categories. Multinational companies (MNCs) also saw a marginal rise from 26% to 27%.
This indicates that while the demand for tech professionals remains robust, a growing portion of these roles are now found outside conventional IT services firms.
New Sectors Emerge as Tech Recruiters
The trend highlights that technology hiring is increasingly decentralized. Industries such as banking, manufacturing, and healthcare are now actively recruiting tech talent, alongside the expanding GCCs. This diversification means fresh graduates with technical skills have a broader array of industries to consider for their first jobs, covering areas like AI, engineering, analytics, and finance operations.
Overall Fresher Hiring Under Pressure
Despite growth in specific tech areas, overall entry-level hiring faced headwinds, declining 2% month-on-month and 10% year-on-year. In contrast, experienced professionals (7-10 years) were the only group to see growth, with hiring up 2% month-on-month and 11% year-on-year. Tarun Sinha, CEO of foundit, noted, “One in four entry-level IT jobs has disappeared over the past year, even as demand for tech work has continued to grow.”
Beyond Tech: Broadening Functional Roles
Fresher opportunities are also expanding into non-tech functional areas. Sales and Business Development increased its share from 18% to 20%, while Engineering and Production rose from 6% to 8%. Medical roles saw the most significant jump, climbing from 7% to 11%, making healthcare the fastest-growing functional area for fresh graduates. Marketing and Communications also recorded strong year-on-year growth at 22%.
AI's Impact on Entry-Level Roles
AI-led positions now constitute 4% of fresher hiring, a substantial increase from approximately 1% a year ago. However, the majority (51%) of these opportunities are in AI operations—including data analysis, prompt engineering, AI operations, and testing—rather than foundational AI model development. This suggests a focus on deploying and managing AI systems rather than solely building them.
Skills and Internships: New Hiring Benchmarks
STEM graduates continue to form the largest cohort in fresher hiring at 42%, reflecting sustained demand for technical skills, followed by Management and Commerce graduates (32%). Employers are increasingly adopting skills-based hiring, with 15% of fresher job postings not specifying educational qualifications. Crucially, prior internship experience has become a key differentiator, preferred or required in nearly six out of ten fresher job postings, while only 42% remain open to candidates without any internship exposure.
Geographical Shifts: Pune Rises as a Hub
Delhi NCR remains the leading region for fresher hiring with a 19% share, followed by Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Pune, each at 14%. Pune, in particular, showed significant growth, increasing its share from 12% to 14%, fueled by expansion in engineering, manufacturing, and GCCs. While Mumbai's share slipped, Tier-II cities like Coimbatore, Jaipur, and Kochi also demonstrated resilience, experiencing only marginal declines of 1–2% year-on-year, supported by hiring across IT services, GCCs, engineering, and BFSI.