Fewer jobs, delayed onboarding: Why Indian IT sector is getting tougher for freshers
The Indian IT sector is shifting away from mass campus hiring, leading to delayed onboarding and increased selectivity for fresh engineering graduates. Companies are now prioritizing specialized skills like AI, cybersecurity, and data engineering over traditional volume-based recruitment.
Why it matters
This trend signals a structural change in the Indian labor market, impacting the career prospects of millions of engineering students and the broader IT services economy.
India’s IT sector is seeing a big shift in hiring - especially at the fresher level with big firms being selective in talent acquisition. Not only that, there is an emerging trend of delaying onboarding at the fresher level, leaving many hires in the lurch on their future job prospects.According to The Times of India’s report, firms including IBM, Accenture, Oracle Financial Services Software and Cognizant have informed candidates that joining timelines depend on project availability, business requirements or administrative processes. This has left many engineering graduates waiting months and sometimes more than a year - just to start work!Experts say the hiring landscape is becoming increasingly project and demand driven rather than a case where freshers were hired in thousands to increase bench strength.The trend reflects a broader reset in the IT sector.
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