Hiring trends in the IT industry have changed rapidly. Global Capability Centres are hiring four times faster than IT companies.
Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are hiring tech talent at four times the rate of IT service companies, marking the most significant shift in India's IT sector jobs in the last decade. GCCs, which are wholly-owned offshore units of multinational companies, handle tasks like IT, R&D, finance, and customer service in-house, rather than outsourcing them. By establishing these units in locations like India, companies leverage specialised talent, reduce costs, and foster innovation. Indian GCCs are playing a strategic role in aerospace, defence, semiconductors, engineering R&D, innovation centres, and global operations.
According to data from staffing firm TeamLease Digital, employee numbers in GCCs are growing at an annual rate of 18% to 27%, while the growth in IT services companies is only between 4% and 6%.
In 2022, GCCs had 1.2 million employees, a figure projected to reach 2 million by 2025, creating approximately 300,000 new jobs annually. In contrast, IT service companies had 5.5 million jobs in 2022, expected to reach 5.6 million by 2025, indicating an annual increase of only 25,000 to 40,000 employees.
Nita Sharma, CEO of TeamLease Digital, stated that this is the widest gap observed to date, with a difference of over 20% in hiring growth. She noted that demand in GCCs is primarily in sectors like AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity, and Product Engineering, which require deep domain expertise.
This surge is driven by a global strategy where companies are bringing back in-house the functions previously outsourced, which formed the basis of India's outsourcing boom. Experts believe this trend will strengthen in the coming years as more multinational companies establish GCCs in India.
Companies are now prioritising high-skill, multi-disciplinary in-house teams within GCCs. Functions requiring IP ownership, speed, security, and deep domain understanding are being brought in-house instead of being outsourced. This year, over 90 new companies have established GCCs in India, while more than 150 existing centres have expanded their operations.
According to Vikram Ahuja, Co-founder of ANSR, a firm involved in the creation and management of GCC projects, approximately 160,000 new GCC jobs are expected to be created in FY2025, with this figure projected to exceed 200,000 in FY2026. In contrast, the top five Indian IT services companies added only 11,000 employees in the first nine months of FY25.
While the number of employees in IT services companies is still nearly double that in GCCs, this gap is rapidly narrowing. GCCs are now emerging as the primary engine for tech job creation in the country.