India’s media and advertising industry is witnessing a sharp shift toward selective and skill-specific hiring as geopolitical tensions in West Asia and broader macroeconomic uncertainty weigh on business sentiment.
Industry experts and staffing firms said companies are continuing to hire but largely for niche digital and revenue-linked roles, while expansion-led recruitment remains muted.
Employers are prioritizing talent that can directly drive measurable returns, audience engagement, and campaign performance.
The pressure stems from mounting concerns over revenue growth and profitability across client sectors, prompting companies to adopt cautious spending strategies. The impact is now spilling over into media and advertising services, where firms are focusing more on maintaining operational capacity than aggressively expanding teams.
According to staffing specialists, hiring demand remains concentrated in areas such as performance marketing, digital campaign analytics, content marketing, programmatic advertising, influencer partnerships, marketing automation, and ad operations. Data-driven brand strategy roles are also gaining traction as advertisers seek a better return on their marketing spend.
Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpehno, said the media and advertising services sector has largely relied on replacement hiring over the last 12 months.
“The sector has maintained active white-collar headcount with only 0.6% net growth during the period. Given the attrition levels of 10-12%, this directly translates into replacement hiring of more than 180,000 roles,” Karanth said.
He added that the 0.6% net increase equates to just over 10,000 jobs in an industry employing more than 1.6 million white-collar professionals, underscoring the limited pace of expansion hiring.
Karanth noted that macroeconomic uncertainty has made employers conservative about adding new capacity, though companies are still avoiding large-scale downsizing.
“It’s a positive sign that the sector has not seen headcount degrowth so far,” he said.
Alongside permanent hiring, the industry is also witnessing a shift towards leveraging gig and freelance talent. Anupama Bhimrajka, vice president-marketing at foundit, said demand is rising for project-based professionals across creative, design, production and content functions.
“Gig hiring in the advertising and media sector accounted for nearly 6% of overall gig opportunities in FY26 and is projected to grow by 10.3% in FY27,” Bhimrajka said.
The selective hiring trend comes even as India’s media and entertainment industry continues to expand. The sector grew around 9% in 2025 to nearly Rs 2.78 lakh crore, driven by digital media, advertising, and live experiences.
Shantanu Rooj, founder and CEO of TeamLease Edtech, said companies are increasingly favouring roles tied directly to business growth and measurable outcomes at present.
“The bias is toward roles that can directly influence growth, conversion, audience engagement, and measurable ROI,” Rooj said.
“At the mid-management level, there is a stronger demand for professionals who can translate data into campaign decisions, manage client outcomes, and optimise spends across creative, media, and analytics teams. Senior hiring is cautious, unless the role has a clear revenue, transformation, or digital growth mandate,” he added.
However, entry-level hiring continues to face pressure as companies reassess training costs and operational efficiency amid uncertain market conditions.
Karanth said campus hiring cycles have remained subdued for more than three years and are likely to stay weak in the near term. Companies are reluctant to invest in training fresh graduates who may not generate immediate revenue returns.
At the same time, firms are evaluating AI-led automation for entry-level functions, particularly repetitive operational tasks.
While the AI impact on entry-level hiring is evolving, enterprises are positively evaluating it as a way to scale operations sustainably without increasing headcounts,” Karanth said. The trend could further impact fresher intake cycles over the coming years, he added.
Despite the cautious outlook, industry experts said media and advertising firms are currently focused on preserving talent and operational readiness until client demand improves.
“As a specialist service sector, it is difficult for enterprises to reduce talent and rebuild capabilities at short notice. The current focus is on maintaining capacity and status quo rather than downsizing,” he added.
First Published on