Small City Job Postings Jump 56% Following Labour Codes

India’s Labour Codes are triggering a dramatic redistribution of job opportunities across the country, with smaller cities emerging as the unexpected winners of regulatory reform. Despite early fears about hiring freezes, data from WorkIndia, India’s largest blue and grey-collar recruitment platform, shows total job postings jumped 8.4% after the codes took effect.

The real story, however, lies beyond the metros. Tier-3 and tier-4 markets are experiencing explosive growth that’s rewriting India’s employment map. Kolhapur has witnessed job postings skyrocket by 56.3%, while Udaipur surged 55.3% growth rates that eclipse anything seen in metropolitan markets. Goa recorded a 23.6% jump, Vijayawada 20.2%, Kochi 17.7%, Coimbatore 14.1%, and Raipur 13.9%. Collectively, these tier-3 and tier-4 cities (P4–P5) are growing at 12-15% and above, signalling that Labour Codes are accelerating formal hiring in emerging and semi-urban regions. This represents potentially millions of new opportunities flowing into India’s economic heartland towns and cities, historically overlooked by organized employment.

Urban markets aren’t being left behind either. P0-P2 cities witnessed steady growth of 6.6% overall, with Surat leading at 22.8%, followed by Ahmedabad at 19.2%, Pune at 13.2%, Mumbai at 8.8%, and Kolkata at 8.9%. The data reinforces that demand remains strong across major employment hubs, even as smaller cities experience disproportionate acceleration.

Workplace trends point to tighter compliance and operational control reshaping how companies structure employment. Work-from-office roles increased by 8.7%, while work-from-home postings declined by 10.4%, a clear shift towards on-site employment under the new regulatory framework. This swing suggests that compliance requirements are pulling employees back to supervised, formal work environments where adherence to labour standards can be more readily monitored and enforced.

Despite the hiring acceleration, salary structures have remained remarkably stable. Average minimum and maximum salaries showed negligible variation post-implementation, indicating that employers are absorbing compliance costs without immediate wage restructuring. This stability suggests companies are prioritising operational adaptation over compensation adjustments in the early phase of the Labour Code rollout.

The experience mix evolution tells another compelling story. Pure fresher roles grew by 11.6%, experienced roles by 6%, while hybrid roles combining both fresher and experienced requirements rose by 9.7%. Notably, hybrid roles now account for 45% of all job postings, nearly half the market, reflecting employers’ strong preference for flexible and adaptable talent pools that can navigate the demands of a formalising labour market.

Gender participation saw a significant positive shift, with job postings for women increasing by 10% compared to 6.3% growth for men. This 3.7%-point gap represents the widest gender differential in hiring growth recorded in recent quarters, highlighting improved inclusivity in hiring practices after the Labour Code changes. The data suggests that formalisation may be opening doors for women in sectors and roles previously characterized by informal, male-dominated hiring.

From an employer size perspective, large enterprises led the expansion with an 11.4% increase in job postings, significantly outperforming small businesses at 7.5% and medium-sized firms at 5.4%. This divergence indicates that compliance-ready organizations with existing HR infrastructure and structured processes are scaling faster under the new labour regime. Scale and preparedness have become competitive advantages, potentially widening the gap between organized large players and smaller operations still adapting to regulatory requirements.

Commenting on the findings, Mr. Nilesh Dungarwal, Co-founder & CEO, WorkIndia, said: “The narrative that Labour Codes would kill jobs was always backwards. What kills jobs is informality, lack of structure, protection, and scalability. What we’re seeing now is the opposite: an 8.4% surge overall, 56% in smaller cities, and women’s opportunities growing 60% faster than men’s. Compliance isn’t the enemy of hiring. It’s becoming the engine of it, especially outside the metros.”

As India’s labour market continues to evolve under the new regulatory framework, WorkIndia’s insights underline how compliance-driven reforms are strengthening organized hiring, improving workforce participation across demographics, and expanding employment opportunities beyond traditional urban centres. The Labour Codes appear to be catalyzing exactly what policymakers intended: a more formal, inclusive, and geographically distributed employment landscape.

WorkIndia is India’s leading platform for job and talent connectivity, revolutionizing the hiring process through innovative solutions and in-depth insights. Dedicated to bridging gaps in the job market, WorkIndia enables employers and candidates to discover and connect seamlessly, driving mutual growth and success.