India’s largest jobs platform has published one of the clearest early indicators of what an AI-era labour market looks like when it is measured monthly rather than modelled: demand for artificial intelligence work is climbing fast, overall hiring is barely moving, and the two trends are pulling in opposite directions at the same time.
The Naukri JobSpeak index for September 2026, published on 6 October, put white-collar hiring up just 2 per cent year-on-year. AI and machine learning roles grew 20 per cent over the same period. The gap between those two numbers is the story: hiring is not vanishing, it is concentrating.
What the September data actually says
Naukri’s index tracks job listings on its own platform, which makes it more sensitive than most surveys — it measures what employers did, not what they said they intend to do. The September readings split cleanly:
- Overall white-collar hiring: +2 per cent year-on-year.
- AI/ML roles: +20 per cent year-on-year.
- Fresher AI/ML hiring: +19 per cent, against overall fresher hiring of just +1 per cent.
- Within IT, where total hiring fell 4 per cent, AI/ML hiring still grew 11 per cent.
- Experienced AI/ML hiring grew faster still — 54 per cent growth for professionals with 13-16 years’ experience, and 28 per cent for the 8-12 year band.
The pattern is not confined to tech. Fresher hiring in oil and gas grew 21 per cent, banking and financial services 14 per cent, and pharma and healthcare 10 per cent. Meanwhile hospitality and travel fell 11 per cent and education fell 18 per cent.
Info Edge MD and CEO Hitesh Oberoi described a market that “remains steady, but more selective”, with demand moving toward “specialised skills, particularly AI”. Hiring growth was led by Hyderabad (+9 per cent) and Chennai (+6 per cent), while Delhi NCR and Mumbai each declined 6 per cent.
The experience premium within AI work
One number deserves attention: even inside AI hiring, freshers (+19 per cent) are growing more slowly than experienced AI professionals (+28 to 54 per cent). Demand for AI skills is real, and it is strongest for people who can direct AI systems rather than simply use them.
That said, fresher AI hiring growing 19 per cent complicates the bleakest entry-level narratives. The company has previously reported the same AI-hiring surge with fresher gains of just 1 per cent — but this latest data shows a 19 per cent rise, a genuine improvement in entry-level AI openings. It is a modest rung, but it is on the ladder.
Why India’s numbers matter to a New Zealand reader
India runs the world’s largest white-collar services machine, and it is an early warning system for office work everywhere. India’s IT sector absorbed the first wave of AI disruption, and its monthly hiring data is now showing the split that economists have been forecasting for smaller markets. India’s IT giants added thousands of workers late last year after a year of cuts, and the World Bank has suggested AI could compress a century of development time into a decade for economies able to capture AI-driven growth.
The New Zealand connection is structural rather than statistical. This country’s IT sector sells exactly what Indian firms sell — knowledge work delivered at scale. When the world’s largest knowledge-work marketplace shows hiring concentrating into AI-specialised, experienced roles while generic roles stay flat, the same pressure is likely to reach NZ employers a few quarters later. A small open labour market cannot escape a shift in global demand, only feel it late.
There is also a positive read for local job-seekers. Naukri’s data shows AI-era demand spreading into banks, oil and gas, pharma and insurance — not just tech firms. New Zealand’s own employers in those sectors are already contending with how AI changes graduate recruitment, and the Reserve Bank has flagged the same entry-level concerns its Indian counterparts are now quantifying. A fresher AI job market growing 19 per cent alongside a flat overall market is one of the strongest data-backed cases yet that AI is redrawing hiring, not eliminating it.
FAQ
What is the Naukri JobSpeak index? A monthly index from Naukri.com, operated by Info Edge (India) Ltd, that measures hiring activity on India’s largest jobs platform. The September 2026 reading placed white-collar hiring up 2 per cent year-on-year at 3,053 versus 3,002 a year earlier.
How fast is AI hiring growing there? AI/ML job postings grew 20 per cent year-on-year in September 2026, per Naukri. Fresher AI hiring grew 19 per cent, and AI hiring inside the IT sector grew 11 per cent despite overall IT hiring declining 4 per cent.
Does AI hiring growth mean fewer jobs overall? Not in the September data. Total white-collar hiring grew slightly, several traditional sectors added freshers at double-digit rates, and hospitality and education declined for reasons that may have little to do with AI. The clearest pattern is specialisation: demand is concentrating into AI-adjacent and experienced roles rather than disappearing.
Why should New Zealand job-seekers watch India’s hiring data? India’s IT and services sector is one of the world’s largest suppliers of globally delivered knowledge work, so its hiring trends tend to surface pressure that reaches smaller markets like New Zealand later — in both the demand for AI-specialised skills and the softness in generic office roles.
— CJ Murden, editor of Singularity.Kiwi. Former digital technologies teacher, author of AI-focused books. Writing with a New Zealand focus.
