Corporate hiring in India is expected to gather pace in the coming year, with companies planning to add more jobs in 2026 than they did in 2025, the Economic Times reported.
Staffing firm TeamLease has projected that Indian companies could create 10-12 million jobs in calendar year 2026, up from an estimated 8-10 million additions in 2025. Human resource leaders across sectors say recruitment momentum is picking up, with a renewed emphasis on campus hiring, skill-based roles and workforce diversity.
Campus recruitment is once again emerging as a key hiring channel, while several companies are also sharpening their focus on inclusivity. At EY India, the firm plans to add between 14,000 and 15,000 employees in the financial year ending June 2026, chief human resources officer Arti Dua said. She noted that hiring from campuses has consistently been a core part of EY’s talent strategy. The firm currently employs close to 50,000 people and typically recruits around 2,000 candidates annually from management institutes, engineering colleges, law schools and undergraduate programmes.
Diageo India’s hiring strategy will centre on capabilities linked to digital transformation, supply chain and category expansion, which are critical to its growth plans, chief HR officer Shilpa Vaid said. Alongside skill-based recruitment, the company is also looking to raise female representation across its workforce. Women currently make up about 30% of its executive staff and 31% of leadership roles.
The anticipated rise in hiring is being driven by continued digital and technology transformation, along with expansion in sectors such as financial services, healthcare and infrastructure, TeamLease Digital chief executive Neeti Sharma said. She added that the growth of global capability centres set up by multinational companies and rising consumer demand beyond metropolitan cities are also supporting employment growth.
At Tata Motors, recruitment will largely align with emerging opportunities in battery technology, software-defined vehicles, hydrogen fuel, engineering and research and development, as well as commercial functions and customer service, said chief HR officer Sitaram Kandi. Companies such as Tata Motors and Godrej Consumer Products are also placing greater emphasis on inclusive hiring practices.
Godrej Consumer Products is working towards increasing the share of persons with disabilities, LGBTIQA+ individuals and cis-women in its workforce to 33% by FY27, up from 31% currently, HR head Vaibhav Ram said.
Motilal Oswal Financial Services plans to recruit across business lines, including for both replacement and incremental roles, particularly in technology, data science, artificial intelligence and support functions, group CHRO Niren Srivastava said. The firm is also seeking to improve gender diversity at leadership levels.
Executives across companies said investments in reskilling and upskilling existing employees will continue alongside fresh hiring, reflecting a broader focus on building future-ready talent pipelines.