Talent market disruption
Three hiring shocks are converging: Gen‑Z employees are demanding clearer pay and progression, India’s IT fresher hiring has slumped toward just‑in‑time models, and recruiters complain about AI‑generated application noise drowning out real candidates. Together they’re forcing hiring teams to rethink screening and narrative. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) (businesstoday.in) (hindustantimes.com)
A Gen‑Z new hire publicly asked whether extra hours would be paid and whether promotions came with salary increases — an exchange that went viral after the post’s author said the room “went quiet.” (economictimes.indiatimes.com)) Fresher hiring in India’s IT sector has fallen from about 600,000 in FY22 to roughly 120,000 in FY25, an 80% decline flagged by Xpheno and reported by Business Today. (businesstoday.in)) Business Today documents repeated cases of deferred onboarding — one campus recruit given an August 2025 offer had their joining pushed by seven months — and reports that Wipro has cut its fresher guidance to 7,500–8,000 while Infosys maintains a 20,000 target with about 18,000 onboarded so far. (businesstoday.in)) A Bengaluru founder, Raj Vikramaditya of takeUforward, said recruiters are seeing a flood of low‑effort, AI‑generated applications and reported that only 1 out of 35 shortlisted UX submissions showed original effort and was hired. (origin-pre-prod.hindustantimes.com)) The same reporting shows recruiters finding polished resumes that collapse under simple task-based evaluation, with Vikramaditya writing that the hiring process now has “too much noise” and fewer quality candidates. (origin-pre-prod.hindustantimes.com)) Industry analysis attributes the fresher slump to a structural shift: top IT firms moved from volume bench‑building to just‑in‑time hiring as companies focus on lateral hires for AI, cloud and cybersecurity work, and redeploy staff freed by transformation projects. (businesstoday.in)) Quarterly net additions at India’s five largest IT services firms plunged from over 50,000 in earlier periods to about 4,787 in a June quarter — a squeeze that industry advisers say is accelerating demand for experienced, specialised talent rather than entry‑level hiring. (economictimes.indiatimes.com))
