This pattern raises considerations for staffing and job-hunting corporations together with TeamLease Providers Ltd, Quess Corp, and Data Edge (India) Ltd, as IT-related hiring by GCCs and IT providers corporations is amongst their largest sources of enterprise, fetching them as much as 44% of their income.
“Most giant scale GCCs that had expanded majorly over the previous few years at the moment are focussing on reworking their processes in areas of individuals administration, know-how, and shared providers (IT and buyer assist features). Therefore, at the moment their hiring volumes are usually not in keeping with their earlier years’ hiring,” stated Neeti Sharma, chief government of TeamLease Digital, in an emailed response to Mint’s queries.
GCCs, which historically rent specialised expertise at increased salaries than IT outsourcers, want to scale back their consumption of individuals, based on a Mint report on 1 September. Decrease hiring by these tech centres has began to indicate its influence on staffing corporations, which get between 4-10% of their income from such centres.
IT slowdown spreads to captives
For 2 years, staffing corporations have flagged muted hiring by IT outsourcers due to weak world demand. This yr, GCC hiring has additionally begun slipping, forcing staffing corporations to trim development expectations.
Nonetheless, Sharma added that GCCs are hiring in areas of AI/ML (machine studying), cybersecurity, cloud, and knowledge roles. TeamLease ended July-September 2025 with ₹3,032 crore in income, up 4.9% sequentially.
An identical pattern was highlighted by Quess Corp.
“Sure conventional IT and assist roles (for GCCs) have plateaued because of automation – however the slowdown is just not uniform,” stated Kapil Joshi, CEO of IT Staffing at Quess Corp, in an emailed response to Mint’s queries.
“The decline is concentrated in entry-level, repeatable roles. Specialised expertise demand stays resilient,” stated Joshi.
Quess ended final quarter with ₹3,832 crore in income, up 5% sequentially. To make sure, Quess is the one giant staffing and recruitment agency that shares income from GCCs.
The Bengaluru-based agency earned 4% of its complete income— ₹155 crore—from GCCs final quarter, down 13% sequentially. The decline alerts weakening demand from captives and highlights the chance of over-reliance on IT-linked hiring.
Most different staffing and job-hunting platforms, together with Data Edge, membership GCC earnings with IT or specialised staffing classes.
For now, there’s a shift to specialised hiring, based on a 3rd staffing and job-hunting agency, which added that GCCs are usually not hiring as they used to previously.
“They (GCCs) have additionally over time moved up the worth chain. You’re seeing quite a lot of high-end jobs additionally transfer to India now, which was maybe not the case earlier. Earlier, most GCCs or again places of work was about simply hiring IT staff and name centre workers. That is not the case anymore,” stated Hitesh Oberoi, co-promoter and managing director of Data Edge, throughout the firm’s post-earnings analyst name on 12 November.
Data Edge, the guardian firm of Naukri.com, ended the final quarter with ₹746 crore in income, up 1.36% sequentially.
H-1B hope fades amid uncertainty
Expectations had risen that US strikes to tighten H-1B visa guidelines would push extra Fortune 500 corporations to open GCCs in India, creating new jobs. India is already a significant hub due to its scale and expert expertise.
Nonetheless, Oberoi stated the influence of the norms was “exhausting to say” at the same time as a number of corporations proceed to open their tech centres within the nation.
“So now, will this H-1B problem result in extra hiring in GCCs? I do not know, as a result of issues preserve altering each few weeks. So, quite a lot of clarifications have been issued by the US authorities. So, I do not know whether or not this can have an effect on extra jobs getting created in India,” stated Oberoi.
A questionnaire despatched to Data Edge went unanswered.
Hiring pivots to non-tech sectors
Staffing corporations anticipate hiring to turn out to be extra value-driven, with increased salaries for specialised roles at the same time as IT-related hiring stays weak.
“IT hiring stays tender, however non-tech sectors corresponding to retail, manufacturing, and GCCs proceed to indicate regular development,” stated Motilal Oswal analysts Abhishek Pathak, Keval Bhagat, and Tushar Dhonde in a word dated 12 November.
Companies additionally anticipate extra hiring from pharma, retail and manufacturing, alongside an increase in AI-led funding by GCCs.
“GCCs are evolving into AI-native functionality centres. Investments in college partnerships, stack-aligned upskilling packages, and superior AI platforms will drive the subsequent part of development,” stated Quess’ Joshi.
Demand from tier-2 cities can be anticipated to shoot up.
“Development will come from nano GCCs that are AI-powered, 50–150 particular person supply hubs, rising in Tier-2 cities. These are delivering specialised output with decrease value and sooner deployment,” stated Sharma, including that development will shift from headcount to functionality.
In accordance with the Nationwide Affiliation of Software program and Providers Corporations (Nasscom), India has greater than 1,760 GCCs, of which 875 are in Bengaluru and 355 in Hyderabad. These GCCs generate export income of no less than $64.6 billion, which is nearly a fourth of the IT sector’s $283 billion.
Nasscom estimates India to have 2,200 GCCs by March 2030 with its market price $105 billion by then.
