India’s Job Market Shows Greater Resilience Amid Global Hiring Slowdown

BENGALURU—October  2026: Bain & Company, in its latest analysis 'Global Job Market Trends' of global job postings, finds that second-quarter job postings fell year over year across major markets, industries, and functions – even as AI-related roles continued to grow. India was among the markets that fared better, with job postings down 5% year over year, compared with steeper declines across several other major markets. The data points to a two-speed labor market, with broad weakness in many sectors and functions coexisting with continued demand in AI-adjacent roles.

Labor demand remains weak across major markets, although India fared better. France (-40%), Brazil (-39%), and the Netherlands (-33%) suffered the largest year-over-year declines among the top 10 markets tracked, followed by Germany (-27%) and the United States (-23%). India (-5%), Canada (-4%), Japan (-7%), China (-10%), and the UK (-9%) fared better.

Core functions remain under pressure. Most major functions recorded double-digit year-over-year declines, with research, design, and development seeing the largest drop at 37%, followed by sales (-32%), marketing (-32%), strategy and analytics (-27%), IT (-25%), and finance (-24%). Engineering (-7%) and other general and administrative functions (-13%) were relatively more resilient.

Bucking the overall trend, AI hiring grew but remains volatile. AI-related postings totaled roughly 351,000 in Q2 2026, up 60% from Q2 2025 and 12% from Q1 2026. AI-related postings also represented a larger share of total postings than a year earlier, although they remained a small portion of overall demand.

Entry-level jobs dropped year over year. Postings for junior jobs, representing 95% of all job postings for the quarter, fell 11% year over year, an acceleration from the first quarter’s 6% year-over-year decline.

Broad-based hiring remains elusive, but pockets of growth remain. Smaller industry categories recorded strong year-over-year growth, including venture capital and private equity (+47%), capital markets (+26%), computer and network security (+19%), and defense and space (+13%). The data points to continued hiring in targeted capabilities even as more general demand contracts.

As global hiring becomes increasingly selective, India’s relatively modest 5% year-on-year decline in job postings highlights its resilience compared with several major markets.