New Delhi, Nov 3 (IANS) India’s white-collar job market in October 2025 showed notable strength in education, accounting and finance, BPO/ITES, and specialised tech roles despite a slowdown in recruitment during the Diwali-Dussehra holidays, a report said on Monday.

The report from recruitment platform Naukri said that India’s white-collar hiring experienced a 3 per cent year-on-year growth when adjusted for the ‘holiday effect’ from the festive calendar shift.

The Naukri JobSpeak Index recorded 2,480 points during the month, marking a 9 per cent year-on-year dip, as the Diwali-Dussehra festive cluster temporarily slowed recruitment momentum.

While the festive season led to a broad-based slowdown, sectors such as accounting and finance (up 15 per cent YoY), education (up 13 per cent), and BPO/ITES (up 6 per cent) defied the trend with positive growth.

The hiring in the education sector was driven by robust performances in Hyderabad (up 47 per cent), Chennai, and Bengaluru.

The education sector saw a notable 25 per cent increase in hiring for freshers with less than three years of experience. Furthermore, hiring by startups in the education space surged by an exceptional 77 per cent compared to the same month last year, the report noted.

Naukri’s data revealed pockets of strength within the technology domain. The emerging technologies sub-sector, which includes companies working on blockchain and cryptocurrency, registered a remarkable 60 per cent YoY growth, showcasing sustained investment in future-forward skills.

Further, hiring activity within IT unicorns remained stable during the month, the release said. BPO/ITES continued to expand steadily with a 6 per cent YoY increase in hiring activity, fuelled by entry-level hiring up 20 per cent, with robust performance in metro and emerging cities.

The demand for niche and high-skill talent continued to intensify, with hiring for machine learning engineers growing 139 per cent.

Notable increases in the range of 30 per cent to 62 per cent growth were seen in hiring for search engineers, medical billers/coders, transition managers, and manufacturing engineers.

–IANS

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