Formal job creation dips 20% in October; banking sees sharpest fall, sanitation posts gains
India’s formal job creation numbers are down 20% on a year-on-year basis and 5.4% compared to last month, making it the second consecutive month of decline, according to a report by global job site Indeed.In the past three months, job postings fell in nearly three-quarters of all sectors, led by banking and finance, where postings dropped 25.6%, followed by legal (22.4%), retail (16.7%), and loading and stocking (15%), the report said.
Pickering said that this is the reason why job posting has been stronger in comparison to other markets both in post pandemic job boom and subsequent slowdown.
Though there has been a slowdown in the job market, some sectors like cleaning and sanitation saw a 20% job rise, followed by community and social service (17.4%), dental (13.1%), nursing (11.2%), food preparation and service (10.3%) and human resources(2.3%)
The report is based on job posting data on the Indeed platform, which tracks real-time hiring activity across India’s formal economy.
As per the report 9.1% of job postings in October explicitly mentioned phrases such as ‘work from home‘ or ‘work remotely’ in their job descriptions, which is 7.6% more than the same month last year.
Remote opportunities were most prevalent in IT infrastructure, operations and support, which accounted for 18.2% of postings in the October quarter of 2025, followed by community and social service at 15.1% and industrial engineering at 14%.
The share of remote roles has also risen compared to last year, driven mainly by IT infrastructure, operations and support, which saw an increase of over 4.4 percentage points, and installation and maintenance, which grew by 3.4 percentage points.
In contrast, notable declines in remote job availability were recorded in veterinary roles, down 2.5 percentage points, and in community and social service, which fell 1.9 percentage points.
“Changes in remote work arrangements can reflect shifting attitudes among employers, particularly with regard to work-from-home mandates. It may also reflect employers’ attempts to attract more candidates,” said Pickering.(With inputs from PTI)
