India's GCC Hiring Surges 12-14% in Q4, Fueled by Replacement Demand

The report from workforce solutions firm Quess Corp noted a huge rise in replacement hiring which now accounted for 40 per cent of all recruitment activity. The rise in replacement hiring was driven by shorter tenure expectations among Gen Z employees, to under 24 months.

These evolving cycles are forcing GCCs to balance aggressive expansion with the need for organizational continuity, the report added.

"As GCCs evolve into strategic global hubs, the focus must shift toward balancing rapid scale with long-term capability building to ensure sustained growth," said Kapil Joshi, CEO of IT Staffing.

While demand remains anchored in AI-driven capabilities, platform engineering, and infrastructure modernization, persistent talent shortages continue to impact the pace of scaling.

Notably, the BFSI sector is grappling with a 42 per cent skill gap in AI and data roles, prompting organizations to offer 1.5-fold to 2.5-fold salary premiums to attract specialized experts.

Platform engineering and cloud infrastructure also showed shortages of 32-36 per cent and 28-32 per cent respectively.

The bottleneck is not a lack of open positions, but a scarcity of specialised expertise in areas like AI/ML Ops, necessitating internal upskilling initiatives, the report noted.

The expansion in GCC hiring was supported by an increased active GCC footprint, signalling renewed enterprise confidence. Following a conservative start to the quarter, momentum rebounded strongly toward the fiscal year-end.

Hiring, however, remained concentrated in Tier‑1 cities, accounting for 88-90 per cent of GCC recruitment, led by Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

While Tier-2 cities grew their share to 10-12 per cent, nearly half of all complex technical mandates remain in Tier-1 hubs. "This reinforces a "hub-and-spoke" model, where Tier-1 locations drive innovation while Tier-2 cities focus on execution and operational scale," the report said.

- IANS