Tier-2 cities outpace metros in India’s latest tech hiring trends

India now ranks as the third most digitalised economy globally. The digital sector currently employees 14.67 million people, representing 2.55% of the national workforce. According to the Randstad Digital Technology Skills Insight Report, the digital economy will contribute 13.42% of India’s national income by 2025.

Major metropolitan areas still hold the largest share of the IT job market. Bengaluru leads with 35.88% of all sector jobs, followed by Hyderabad at 16.08% and Pune at 13.64%. However, smaller cities are growing at a faster rate. Tier-2 cities recorded 25% hiring growth, compared to 10% in Tier-1 hubs.

Cities such as Jaipur, Vadodara and Coimbatore are becoming regional centres for technical roles. For example, Coimbatore (18.7%) and Chandigarh (16.7%), now show significant demand for Java developers. In the North, Chandigarh, Jaipur, and Indore lead the demand for AI and machine learning (AI/ML) roles among Tier-2 locations.

Skills in highest demand

Ten core skills account for nearly half of the current IT job market. Java development remains the most requested skill at 8.83% followed by Salesforce development at 7.23% and project management at 6.10%.

While traditional programming remains essential, specilised roles are gaining ground:

• AI and Data Science

India contributes 23% of global GitHub AI projects, the highest worldwide. And, it is also expected that demand for AI professionals may reach one million by 2026.

• Cybersecurity

As threats become more complex, cybersecurity is moving toward a data-driven model. Demand is high for security engineers, network architects, and cloud security specialists.

• Next-Gen roles

Companies are starting to hire for niche positions like prompt engineers and IoT solutions architects in cities like Surat and Gandhinagar.

Looking toward 2026

The requirements for senior-level employees are changing. At this stage, project management and leadership skills often outrank technical coding. Management roles lead senior hiring at 10.7%, followed by Data Science and Cloud Architecture. This indicates that leadership now focuses on managing both human teams and machine systems.

Report suggest that one-third of the global workforce will require digital upskilling by 2026, with half of those individuals located in India. Technical literacy is becoming a requirement across all departments, including marketing and operations. While automation handles routine tasks, human skills like critical thinking and creative problem-solving remain necessary for businesses to function.

Source: Randstad Digital Technology Skills Insight Report