India’s White-Collar Hiring Rises 14% in October; Manufacturing, Auto Lead

India’s white-collar hiring increased 14% year-on-year in October 2026, with automobile, manufacturing-related functions and specialised technology roles recording higher recruitment activity, according to the latest Naukri JobSpeak report. Hyderabad, Pune and Delhi-NCR were among the leading cities for hiring growth.

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The Naukri JobSpeak Index increased to 2,836 in October 2026, compared with 2,480 in October 2025. However, the year-on-year comparison needs to be viewed in the context of last year’s festive season, as Diwali fell in October 2025 and affected recruitment activity.

Automobile and Manufacturing Hiring

The automobile industry recorded 36% year-on-year growth in hiring, making it the leading industry among the sectors covered in the report. BPO/ITeS followed with 17% growth, while banking and financial services recorded a 16% increase.

Separately, the report showed a 39% increase in hiring for production and manufacturing functions. This is a job-function category across industries and should not be interpreted as 39% growth in the manufacturing industry as a whole.

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Within the automobile sector, recruitment activity increased across several functions:

• Research and development hiring increased 53%.
• Procurement and supply chain roles grew 50%.
• Production and manufacturing functions recorded 41% growth.
• Sales and business development hiring increased 7%.

Production-related recruitment also increased in other industries, including industrial products and heavy machinery.

AI and GCC Hiring Continue to Grow

Demand for specialised technology professionals remained strong in October. AI and machine learning roles recorded 32% year-on-year growth, while hiring by global capability centres (GCCs) increased 18%.

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However, general IT hiring continued to grow at a slower pace. IT and software services recruitment increased 5%, indicating that demand remains stronger in specialised technology areas than in the broader IT services segment.

The FMCG sector recorded 6% overall hiring growth. Recruitment in its production functions increased 40%, while procurement hiring grew 20%. Sales and business development hiring in the sector declined 5%.

Hyderabad Leads Metro Hiring

Among major cities, Hyderabad recorded the highest white-collar hiring growth at 15%, followed by Pune at 14% and Delhi-NCR at 13%.

Bengaluru and Mumbai recorded 12% growth each, while Chennai registered 11%. Kolkata’s hiring activity remained flat.

The October data points to stronger recruitment demand in automobile, production, engineering, AI and GCC-related roles. For HR teams, this indicates continued hiring requirements across manufacturing operations, research and development, procurement, supply chain and specialised technology skills.

However, the festive-season base effect should be considered while interpreting the overall 14% growth figure.