Skills favoured over formal degrees in blue-collar hiring: Report

Mumbai, Jan 15 (PTI) India's blue-collar hiring is increasingly favouring workers with hands-on skills over formal degrees, as more employers are recruiting people even without educational qualifications, according to a report.

'Less than Tenth' is now the most preferred qualification across job postings, signalling a decisive move away from traditional education filters, finds a report by WorkIndia, blue- and grey-collar recruitment platform.

It revealed that this shift underscores how India's workforce demand is being shaped by operational skills, job readiness, and hands-on capabilities, particularly across high-volume, frontline sectors.

"India's labour market is undergoing a critical transformation. We are seeing a clear shift where employers are prioritising skills, reliability and job readiness over formal degrees. This change is making blue-collar hiring far more inclusive, creating meaningful opportunities for millions of Indians without formal education but with the skills required to power the country's economic engine," WorkIndia Co-Founder and CEO Nilesh Dungarwal said.

The WorkIndia report is based on inputs from 9,92,213 employers and 1,01,76,783 employees in 2025, through their job postings and hiring data across multiple blue- and grey-collar categories on the company's platform.

Geographically, the report revealed that hiring continued to be concentrated in urban centres while rapidly expanding beyond metros.

Delhi recorded the highest number of job postings at 26 per cent, however, demand is spreading across tier-II and III cities, indicating that blue-collar job creation is becoming increasingly decentralised and accessible to workers across the country, it added.

When it came to gender-based hiring patterns, the report found that delivery remains the sector with the highest preference for male candidates, while telecalling leads hiring for women.

The report projected that in 2026 this trend is likely to accelerate, as businesses scale operations and focus on speed, efficiency, and workforce flexibility. PTI SM TRB