NEW DELHI: Small cities and towns witnessed a sharp surge in hiring – more than double the pace seen in metros – driven by robust growth in the BFSI, manufacturing, retail, and IT sectors. This trend marks a significant shift towards decentralised economic growth, underscoring the rapid rise of tier-2 cities as emerging talent hubs, with opportunities now expanding beyond traditional urban centres. Job openings in tier-2 cities rose nearly 42%, compared to a 19% increase in tier-1 cities, according to the Randstad Talent Insights Report 2025 shared exclusively with TOI.The first edition of the report, drawn from data in the six-month period – Sept 2024 to Feb 2025-captures insights across six key industries: banking, financial services & insurance (BFSI), manufacturing and automotive, IT, pharma, healthcare & life sciences (PHL), retail, FMCG & FMCD, and energy and utilities.
Anjali Raghuvanshi, chief people officer & senior director (business innovation) at Randstad India, a talent company, said, ” Our report indicates that tier-1 cities maintain a robust hiring outlook across all surveyed sectors. More interestingly, tier-2 and 3 cities are rapidly gaining ground, emerging as hiring hotspots, thus reflecting the vast potential and widespread distribution of talent across the country. The impressive growth trajectory of these cities can be credited to their growing economic relevance, a steady pipeline of skilled talent from quality educational institutions, and a concentrated push towards infrastructure development.”Among tier-1 cities, Bengaluru solidified its leadership in talent demand, exhibiting higher hiring numbers and a greater share of demand across all experience levels and sectors. Mumbai further strengthened its dominance in the energy and utilities sector at the middle and senior levels. It also reinforces its position as a key talent hub across all levels for the BFSI, retail, FMCG, and FMCD industries.Among tier-2 cities, Chandigarh made an impactful rise to top rankings and witnessed surge in hiring across all industries at different levels. Gandhinagar and Aurangabad joined the list of tier-2 cities in this edition. During the period, Vadodara showed a big surge in hiring numbers, rankings, and share of demand at all levels in the energy & utilities, PHL, and automotive & manufacturing industries.Further, under the BFSI sector, investment banking, business operations, and business analyst roles take the top three spots in terms of hiring demand across all levels. The role of a cyber fraud analyst entered the skill portfolio for the first time to feature in the Top 20 skills. With more advanced cyber frauds in the digital age, the role has opened up job opportunities, both in tier-1 and tier-2 cities, the report adds. In the manufacturing and automotive sector, production managers, supply chain/logistics professionals, and operations management specialists continue to dominate the hiring demand.