Hiring freshers: Big ambitions of small firms are reshaping entry-level jobs
Companies are not just planning to hire more freshers; they are creating digitally-enabled roles for rapid learning. Across sectors, hiring intent is rising despite a pause in large firms, making tech-savvy, adaptable talent highly sought after.
Freshers are at the centre of a subtle but important hiring reset. Compared to just a year ago, many industries have shifted from cautious hiring to showing clear intent on expanding entry-level cohorts.
This is not simply about creating more jobs; it’s about different jobs, designed around digital workflows and rapid on-the-job learning. What underpins the shift is not volume alone but a change in roles. Across sectors, the new openings are horizontal, tech-enabled, and deliberately trainable.
As Shantanu Rooj, Founder and CEO, TeamLease Edtech, explains, “Smaller and medium enterprises are very bullish about adding a lot of freshers to their talent supply chain.” In contrast, he tells YourStory that larger firms “have already hired a lot of people, so they want to see productivity before bringing in more” and are also “focused on strengthening their middle order.”
This duality—rising employer intent at the sector level even as open positions remain few and far between amid hiring pause from large players—presents an interesting trend.
TeamLease EdTech data, sampling 1,065 employers, shows a sharp year-on-year rise in hiring intent across several industries between H2 2024 and H2 2025, representing the share of employers in each sector planning to hire freshers during the second half of this year.
Travel and hospitality hiring intent rose sharply to 75% in H2 2025 from 24% in H2 2024. The rebound reflects the recovery in domestic tourism, aided by new airport projects, road connectivity, and hospitality expansion, combined with stronger tech adoption in revenue management and guest experience. Employers are looking for juniors who can pair customer service skills with digital fluency.
The same metric in the power and energy sector climbed to 69% in H2 2025 from 18% in H2 2024. Renewables, EV charging networks, and battery innovation are driving fresh entry roles in grid management, testing, and smart charging systems. These opportunities demand a mix of engineering fundamentals and Internet of Things (IoT) or data awareness.
Hiring intent in construction and real estate advanced to 66% in H2 2025 from 28% in H2 2024. Mall and retail rollouts, along with large infrastructure works, are creating strong demand for junior engineers and coordinators. Digital project tools and Building Information Modelling (BIM) practices are now part of the expected skill set, even at the entry level.
In marketing and advertising, the intent surged to 67% in H2 2025 from just 9% in H2 2024. The expansion is fuelled by the boom in digital content, influencer marketing, and generative AI campaigns. Companies need junior analysts, content producers and social media operators who can work effectively with AI-assisted platforms.
Media and entertainment hiring intent increased to 59% in H2 2025 from 15% in H2 2024. Streaming services and short-form platforms are scaling up rapidly, leading to new roles in production and editorial teams that thrive on fast-paced iteration.
Around 77% companies dealing with fast-moving consumer goods intend to hire freshers in H2 2025, up from from 27% in H2 2024. Growth in food processing and deeper rural distribution networks is generating large numbers of junior positions in logistics, marketing, and digital trade operations.
In retail, this metric jumped to 87% in H2 2025 from 54% in H2 2024. The hiring in retail is less about traditional shop-floor hiring and more about digitally-enabled roles. Expansion into Tier II and III towns, omnichannel fulfilment and festival-driven demand are driving hiring in store operations, fulfilment centres and customer analytics.
The hiring intent in manufacturing escalated to 82% in H2 2025 from 52% in H2 2024. Industry 4.0, robotics and industrial IoT are reshaping the factory floor. As Shantanu remarks, “IoT is becoming deeply embedded in manufacturing, where robotisation has already become a reality.” Firms are therefore recruiting IoT engineers and process automation specialists rather than filling conventional manual posts.
“New-age people now have more digital skills than people who graduated 20 years back,” notes Rooj, adding that they help organisations transition to a more digitalised world.
Hiring intent for freshers in ecommerce and technology startups soared to 88% in H2 2025 from 61% in H2 2024. Heavy investment in AI for demand forecasting, chatbots, and warehouse automation, coupled with rapid delivery models, is driving demand for platform-trained freshers.
Around 75% information technology companies plan to hire for entry-level jobs in H2 2025, up from from 45% in H2 2024. Skills in cloud, cybersecurity, AI, and data are once again in demand. Larger IT employers remain cautious, but smaller firms are expanding fresher intake to capture new opportunities.
In telecommunications, the metric grew to 68% in H2 2025 from 48% in H2 2024. Nationwide 5G rollouts and network expansion are generating technician, network engineering and junior analytics positions across the sector.
What’s interesting is the scale of the internal market rebalancing. Across sectors, the number of employers indicating intent to hire freshers has grown, even though the absolute number of open positions may not rise at the same pace because large firms are hiring fewer freshers. This places freshers who combine digital fluency with adaptability at the front of the line.
“Startups and smaller organisations are reshaping the way traditional businesses operate. They have to productise differently and build processes differently, which is why they want to create new teams that can think differently and bring innovation. A smaller organisation can have up to 30% of the workforce as freshers, which helps them transition faster,” Rooj explains.
The direction is clear. Candidates should prioritise AI and data literacy, IoT basics, and digital marketing skills, while strengthening communication and rapid learning habits. Meanwhile, universities need to scale internship-linked and work-integrated programmes so graduates are genuinely job-ready.
Crucially, hiring intent is an indicator of employer appetite and directional demand over a six-month period, not a one-to-one record of actual hires. The H2 2025 swings should therefore be read as a marker of where entry-level demand and skills are moving.
Edited by Kanishk Singh