Tech hiring in India slowed to its weakest point in more than two years this summer, according to staffing analytics firm Xpheno, whose data showed active technology job openings fell to around 93,000 in June — a 28-month low, down 17% year-on-year and 14% lower than May. The figures resurfaced in industry coverage through mid-October as recruiters and analysts kept debating what was behind the dip.

Where the slowdown hit hardest

The pain wasn't spread evenly. Openings for candidates with up to two years of experience fell 44% year-on-year to roughly 10,000 — by far the steepest drop of any experience band. Mid-to-senior roles made up the largest single chunk of the market, at around 46,000 of the 93,000 total openings. IT services firms, traditionally the biggest tech employers in the country, saw openings fall 16% month-on-month to about 36,000.

One bright spot: GCCs

Global Capability Centres — the in-house tech and operations hubs multinational companies run out of India — were down 6% month-on-month but still up 31% year-on-year. That continues a multi-year pattern: as IT services firms tighten hiring, GCCs have kept absorbing a growing share of tech talent, often for more specialised, product-facing roles rather than pure services delivery.

What caused it

Analysts pointed to a mix of factors rather than one single cause: continued uncertainty around US H-1B visa policy, AI tools changing how much engineering headcount companies think they need, and a broader pause in discretionary tech spending among large enterprise clients. None of these are new pressures individually, but June appears to be the point where they compounded.

The recovery so far

The picture isn't uniformly bleak. Later data cited by industry outlets showed active openings rebounding roughly 14% to about 106,000 in July, suggesting June may have marked the bottom of this cycle rather than the start of a longer slide. Whether that bounce continues through the rest of 2026 is still an open question.

What this means if you're job hunting

• Expect a mid-senior-weighted market. With entry-level openings down sharply, early-career candidates may need to cast a wider net, including internships, contract roles, or GCCs actively building out junior benches.
• Look at GCCs specifically. Their relative resilience makes them worth prioritising in your search, especially if you have skills in AI, data, or platform engineering.
• Don't read one bad month as a trend. The July rebound is a reminder that hiring data is noisy month-to-month — track it over a quarter, not a single data point, before drawing conclusions about your own prospects.