India’s IT industry faces talent glut as applications surge across roles

New Delhi: India's IT sector is witnessing one of its biggest talent surpluses in at least a decade, with the number of active jobseekers rising 32% in four months to 650,000 in April from 490,000 in January, according to data CIEL HR compiled for ET.

About 40% of IT jobseekers are professionals with 3-6 years of experience, job market experts said.

While the exact volumes vary across roles and locations, for many mid-level technology roles, recruiters who received a few hundred applications last year are now seeing well over a thousand profiles, said Balasubramanian A, senior vice-president at Teamlease Services.


In several IT skill categories, the average number of applications per opening has increased by 25-30% year-on-year during February-April 2026, according to Teamlease.

"This spike is closely linked to ongoing structural shifts in the IT services sector," said Aditya Narayan Mishra, managing director and CEO of CIEL HR. "A combination of global restructuring, layoffs, and the accelerated deployment of AI-led tools is reshaping workforce demand."

Sanketh Chengappa, director and business head, professional staffing, at Adecco India, said the current volume of resumes from IT professionals is one of the highest observed in the last decade. "This increase is not just in volume, but also in quality, including a noticeable rise in mid-to-senior level professionals entering the market. Even candidates, who previously had stable jobs, are actively exploring new opportunities," he told ET.

While the broader mood in the market has shifted from growth-at-all-costs to productivity and efficiency, experts said the trend is less about a collapse in hiring and more about a structural reset.

"What's actually happening is two stories colliding: disruption in one place, scarcity in another," explained Milind Shah, managing director, India, at Randstad Digital. "Generalist roles like basic coding, data entry and junior development are under pressure, and that's where the CV surge is coming from. But highly specialised skills such as AI/ML engineering, cloud architecture, cybersecurity and data engineering are in shortage, he explained."

According to job market experts, while professionals are applying more aggressively now because they sense uncertainty about career stability, slower hiring cycles, and the growing impact of AI on traditional technology roles, employers are becoming far more selective.

"Hiring decisions today are increasingly tied to specialised capabilities and immediate business outcomes," Shah said.