India has the strongest hiring outlook of any country in the world, according to ManpowerGroup’s Employment Outlook Survey, which has placed the country at the top of its global rankings through 2026. India led all 42 surveyed countries with a Net Employment Outlook of 68% for the second quarter, ahead of the United Arab Emirates and Brazil, and held the top spot in the third quarter at a moderated 48%.
The Net Employment Outlook measures the share of employers planning to add staff, minus those planning to cut. India’s Q2 reading of 68% was a rise of 17 points over the previous quarter and 24 points year on year, its strongest showing since ManpowerGroup began tracking India data in 2008. The global outlook for the same quarter stood at 31%.
ManpowerGroup tied India’s momentum to GST reforms, resilient domestic demand and improving trade prospects, including India-EU negotiations. Strong activity in manufacturing and services, along with the continued expansion of Global Capability Centres, has kept hiring demand elevated.
“India’s Q3 2026 hiring outlook remains the strongest globally, reflecting continued employer confidence in the country’s growth trajectory despite an increasingly complex business environment,” said Sandeep Gulati, Managing Director, ManpowerGroup India and Middle East.
Gulati framed the quarter-on-quarter cooling as a more cautious and selective hiring approach rather than a decline in business confidence.
The optimism shows up in other recent surveys too. Naukri’s H2 2026 Hiring Outlook, based on responses from more than 540 senior HR leaders, found 79% expecting new job creation in the second half of the year and 97% expecting hiring activity to continue. Real estate, FMCG and IT/Tech led that sentiment, with 86%, 85% and 83% of HR leaders respectively anticipating new roles.
There’s a catch running alongside the confidence: talent scarcity. In the ManpowerGroup data, 82% of Indian organisations reported difficulty finding the skills they needed, a capability gap widening in parallel with demand. In the Naukri survey, matching available skills to changing job requirements emerged as the single biggest hiring challenge, cited by 31% of HR leaders.
Hiring has also shifted in character. Companies have moved away from bulk recruitment toward selective, skills-led hiring, with mid- and senior-level professionals in demand and Tier-2 cities accounting for a growing share of new roles.
