Devdiscourse
RSS FeedAI/ML hiring jumps 20% as white-collar job market stays steady in September
Original Published: October 2, 2026
🎯 Impact Sentiment: Positive
📋 Summary
- India's Naukri JobSpeak report, carried by ANI on October 2, 2026, says AI and machine-learning hiring grew 20% year on year in September even as overall white-collar hiring stayed broadly steady.
- The Naukri JobSpeak Index rose 2% year on year to 3,053 in September, from 3,002 a year earlier, while IT and software-services hiring fell 4%.
- Inside AI and machine learning, hiring of people with 13–16 years of experience rose 54%, demand for 8–12 years rose 28%, and fresher hiring in those roles grew 19%.
- Auto hiring grew 11%, BPO/ITES and global capability centres each rose 4%, while hospitality and travel fell 11% and education fell 18%.
💡 JR Insights
- 💼 Implication: In India, specialised AI and machine-learning experience is being hired even while the wider white-collar market and traditional IT services are flat or down.
- 🚨 Risk: Early-career candidates outside AI see much weaker growth—overall fresher hiring rose only 1%, and the 4–7 year band fell 2%.
- ✨ Takeaway: Pair a core domain with a demonstrable AI or machine-learning skill, and highlight years of applied experience if you are mid-career.