{"id":54469,"date":"2026-09-04T15:18:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T09:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/?p=54469"},"modified":"2026-09-04T15:18:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T09:48:35","slug":"foundit-insights-tracker-august-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/foundit-insights-tracker-august-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"foundit Insights Tracker in India Records a 10% Annual Decline in Hiring Activity in Aug&#8217;26"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Mid-career professionals and select high-growth sectors buck the broader slowdown; salary momentum concentrates in AI-adjacent and&nbsp;specialised&nbsp;manufacturing roles<\/em>&nbsp;<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Overview<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;foundit&nbsp;Insights Tracker (FIT) for India stood 10% below its year-ago level in August 2026, extending the softer print seen since March. The month, however, delivered a 5% sequential rebound, and the three-month reading is now essentially flat &mdash; the first signal in several cycles that the pull-back may be bottoming out rather than deepening.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>The broader picture&nbsp;remains&nbsp;uneven. Only 5 of 26 industries and 6 of 13 functional areas registered annual growth, and hiring intent continues to concentrate around&nbsp;specialised, replacement, and mid-career demand rather than volume expansion.&nbsp;<\/p><div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file aligncenter\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/foundit-Insights-Tracker-August-26-1.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of &lt;strong&gt;Hiring Trends in India- Aug &rsquo;26&lt;\/strong&gt;.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-dc9c67fc-650e-49c9-ab7b-0f48ee742369\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/foundit-Insights-Tracker-August-26-1.pdf\"><strong>Hiring Trends in India- Aug &rsquo;26<\/strong><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/foundit-Insights-Tracker-August-26-1.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-dc9c67fc-650e-49c9-ab7b-0f48ee742369\">Download<\/a><\/div><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>YoY:<\/strong>&nbsp;&ndash;10%&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>MoM:<\/strong>&nbsp;+5%&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>3-month:<\/strong>&nbsp;&ndash;0%&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>6-month:<\/strong>&nbsp;&ndash;18%&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><\/strong>&nbsp;<br><strong>Industry: Travel, Healthcare and Real Estate anchor the positive column<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br><em>Five of the 26 industries&nbsp;tracked posted&nbsp;annual growth in Aug&rsquo;26.&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/h3><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Travel &amp; Tourism led at +22%, supported by sustained leisure demand and continued expansion in aviation, hospitality operations and OTAs.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Healthcare &amp; Pharmaceuticals followed at +16%, reflecting steady clinical hiring alongside a pick-up in medical devices and&nbsp;speciality&nbsp;pharma.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Real Estate rose 10% as commercial leasing and residential launch cycles firmed up in the top metros.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Automotive (+8%) drew strength from EV,&nbsp;component&nbsp;manufacturing&nbsp;and industrial engineering roles, while Construction &amp; Engineering rounded out the gainers at +5%, in line with public infrastructure activity.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The declines were led by Import &amp; Export (&ndash;27%), Logistics &amp; Transportation (&ndash;22%) and Chemicals &amp; Plastics (&ndash;21%) &mdash; trade-linked segments most exposed to weaker external demand.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Retail (&ndash;18%), BPO (&ndash;13%) and IT &ndash; Software &amp; Services (&ndash;11%) also remained soft, though IT registered a modest MoM improvement, its first sequential gain in several months. Manufacturing (&ndash;3%) and BFSI (&ndash;3%) posted only mild YoY declines and are close to a flat run-rate on a three-month view.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Functional area: Medical, Marketing and Legal roles lead demand<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h3><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<strong><em>Six of the 13 functional areas&nbsp;monitored&nbsp;posted annual growth in Aug&rsquo;26.&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/strong><br>&nbsp;<br>Medical roles topped the table at +23%, mirroring the underlying industry pattern, followed by Marketing &amp; Communications (+20%) as brands returned to consumer-facing spend after a subdued first half.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>Legal (+9%), Engineering &amp; Production (+7%), IT (+5%) and Finance &amp; Accounting (+4%) rounded out the gainers, with IT hiring showing early signs of&nbsp;stabilisation.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>On the other end, Senior Management roles saw the sharpest annual drop (&ndash;13%), followed by Creative (&ndash;12%) and Sales &amp; Business Development (&ndash;10%) &mdash; a pattern consistent with employers holding back on discretionary hiring and&nbsp;prioritising&nbsp;execution over leadership expansion.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>HR &amp; Admin (&ndash;5%), Procurement &amp; Supply Chain (&ndash;5%) and Hospitality (&ndash;4%) declined more moderately.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>City: Bengaluru extends its lead; smaller metros&nbsp;remain&nbsp;under pressure<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<br>Five of the 13 cities tracked registered annual growth, with Bengaluru (+5%) again the strongest, followed by Hyderabad (+4%), Kochi (+2%), Chennai (+2%)&nbsp;and&nbsp;Delhi-NCR (+1%). The concentration of technology,&nbsp;GCC&nbsp;and healthcare hiring in the southern metros continues to insulate them from the broader slowdown.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>Mumbai was flat, while Chandigarh (&ndash;18%) and Kolkata (&ndash;12%) saw the steepest declines. Pune (&ndash;7%), Ahmedabad (&ndash;5%) and Jaipur (&ndash;4%) trailed the metro average, reflecting weaker demand in export-oriented and traditional manufacturing clusters.&nbsp;<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><\/strong>&nbsp;<br><strong>Experience: Mid-career professionals stand alone as gainers<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h3><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The 7&ndash;10 years band was the only experience segment to register annual growth, up 10% year-on-year &mdash; a clear signal that employers are&nbsp;prioritising&nbsp;execution-ready professionals over both entry-level and very senior hires. The 11&ndash;15 years band was near flat (&ndash;2%), while 4&ndash;6 years (&ndash;7%), 0&ndash;3 years (&ndash;9%) and 15+ years (&ndash;11%) all trailed.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The pattern is consistent with what the functional-area data shows: firms are pulling back on volume hiring at the junior end and on leadership expansion at the top, while retaining appetite for the mid-career layer that carries delivery and&nbsp;specialised&nbsp;technical work.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><\/strong>&nbsp;<br><strong>In focus: Salary momentum concentrates in AI, healthcare&nbsp;speciality&nbsp;and advanced manufacturing<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Compensation trends in Aug&rsquo;26 confirm what the hiring data already suggests &mdash; pay growth is running fastest where demand is narrowest and most&nbsp;specialised.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Semiconductors (+9%), Industrial Automation (+8%), Medical Practice (+8%), Data Mining (+7%) and Digital Marketing (+7%) posted the strongest annual salary increases across sub-industries. Automotive (+6%), Medical Devices (+6%), Consumer Electronics (+5%), Civil Engineering (+5%)&nbsp;and&nbsp;Venture Capital\/Private&nbsp;Equity&nbsp;(+5%)&nbsp;followed closely.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>At the other end, Printing (&ndash;5%), E-Commerce (&ndash;3%), Publishing (&ndash;3%), Broadcast Media (&ndash;2%) and Internet (&ndash;2%) saw pay bands compress year-on-year &mdash; segments where hiring volumes have also weakened, pointing to genuine wage erosion rather than routine mix shifts.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><\/strong>&nbsp;<br><strong>AI compensation&nbsp;remains&nbsp;sharply&nbsp;location-dependent.<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>Bengaluru continues to command the highest AI salary bands across every experience level, followed by Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR&nbsp;and Mumbai.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>For&nbsp;specialised&nbsp;AI roles, Bengaluru,&nbsp;Hyderabad&nbsp;and NCR pay&nbsp;approximately 10&ndash;25% more than Pune or Chennai.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>The metro-to-Tier-2 gap is&nbsp;wider still: Tier-2 cities pay 28&ndash;31% less than metros for equivalent AI roles, with the gap widening at senior levels &mdash; 28% at entry, but 31% for 15+ years of experience.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>Entry- and mid-level AI talent is becoming increasingly accessible outside the major hubs, but senior specialists&nbsp;remain&nbsp;concentrated where product companies, AI-first startups and GCCs cluster.&nbsp;<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&nbsp;<br><strong>About foundit<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h3><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">foundit (formerly Monster APAC &amp; ME) is a leading talent platform for jobseekers and employers across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. With a presence in 11 countries,&nbsp;foundit&nbsp;offers innovative, data-driven solutions that enable candidates to discover opportunities aligned with their skills and aspirations, while helping employers connect with the right talent.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mid-career professionals and select high-growth sectors buck the broader slowdown; salary momentum concentrates in AI-adjacent and&nbsp;specialised&nbsp;manufacturing roles&nbsp;Overview&nbsp;The&nbsp;foundit&nbsp;Insights Tracker (FIT) for India stood 10% below its year-ago level in August 2026, extending the softer print seen since March. The month, however, delivered a 5% sequential rebound, and the three-month reading is now essentially flat &mdash; the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/foundit-insights-tracker-august-2026\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">foundit Insights Tracker in India Records a 10% Annual Decline in Hiring Activity in Aug&#8217;26<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights-tracker"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54473,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54469\/revisions\/54473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.in\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}