Bengaluru, April 28: India’s Manufacturing, Engineering and Infrastructure (MEI) sector has recorded a Net Employment Change (NEC) of 6.6% for HY1 FY2026–27, strengthening from 5.5% in the previous half-year, according to the TeamLease Employment Outlook Report (EOR). With 70% of MEI employers planning workforce expansion, the sector ranks among the top three industries by hiring intent nationally, signalling a shift from cyclical recovery to structured expansion.
This acceleration is being driven by a clear build-up in industrial investment cycles and policy-led momentum across the MEI ecosystem. The National Manufacturing Mission’s integrated push across clean-tech manufacturing, semiconductor ecosystem development, and PLI frameworks is supporting structured talent creation across the value chain. Semiconductor investments across Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka are expected to generate approximately 1 million jobs across fabrication, ATMP, chip design, and supply-chain functions by 2026–28. In parallel, Industry 4.0 adoption is reshaping demand toward higher-value, digitally enabled roles across plant operations and engineering design.
As industrial execution deepens, functional hiring within MEI continues to reflect strong alignment with capital deployment cycles. Plant engineering, automation engineering, project management, ATMP operations, and sustainability-linked manufacturing roles remain core demand areas. Engineering as a function reflects execution continuity, with 33% of employers planning growth and 46% maintaining stable headcount, indicating sustained capex-driven activity rather than speculative hiring. Growth continues to concentrate in EV ecosystems, renewables, and advanced manufacturing capabilities.
Geographically, MEI hiring is consolidating across established and emerging industrial corridors. Chennai leads city-level expansion intent at 24%, followed by Pune at 20% and Bengaluru at 18%. In Pune, for instance, hiring momentum is supported by proximity to manufacturing clusters and engineering R&D ecosystems. At the state level, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Gujarat continue to anchor manufacturing employment generation through automotive, semiconductor, and EPC project pipelines.
As this industrial expansion continues, compensation trends reflect rising demand for specialised engineering capability. MEI sector salary increments for FY2026–27 are projected at 9.4%, placing the sector in the ‘Sustainable Growth’ cluster, ahead of IT at 8.9%, Banking at 8.8%, and Insurance at 8.7%. At the city level, Chennai and Pune lead salary increments at 9.8% each, reinforcing their position as key MEI talent hubs.
Structural regulatory changes are reshaping MEI workforce design, with 64% reporting higher employment costs and 80% revising salary structures. Around 20% are rebalancing permanent, fixed-term and contract roles, while 62% are upgrading HRMS and payroll systems, reflecting a shift toward digitised compliance and more structured workforce governance across manufacturing, engineering and infrastructure operations.
Commenting on the findings, Balasubramanian A, Senior Vice President, TeamLease Services, said,
“Manufacturing, Engineering and Infrastructure is no longer in a recovery phase. The +6.6% NEC reflects sustained investment pipelines across semiconductors, clean energy and advanced manufacturing. What is evolving is the nature of workforce deployment, which is becoming more digital, more specialised and increasingly positioned at the intersection of engineering and technology. Organisations building capability in these areas today are likely to secure a structural advantage as industrial capex cycles mature.”
The MEI sector is moving into a more consolidated phase of expansion, with workforce decisions increasingly anchored in execution efficiency and integrated project delivery. As industrial ecosystems scale across manufacturing, energy transition and infrastructure buildouts, organisations are sharpening focus on specialised capability deployment and system-led workforce alignment. This reflects an industrial landscape where sustained productivity and coordinated execution across value chains are emerging as key differentiators of performance and scale.
These insights are based on a survey of 1,268 employers across 23 industries and 20 cities, conducted between November 2025 and January 2026.
