- An expanding IT and services economy, alongside rising enterprise and export investment, is turning Surat and Vadodara into new centres of professional opportunity
INDIA | 22nd JULY 2026 | LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, has released the second edition of its Cities on the Rise list, revealing the 10 non-metro Indian cities experiencing the strongest job market momentum. This year Surat (#3) and Vadodara (#4) both feature among India’s top five fastest-growing career hubs. The list is led by Visakhapatnam (#1) and Ludhiana (#2), with Prayagraj (#5) rounding out the top five, reinforcing a broader shift of talent and investment activity beyond India’s traditional metro hubs.
The list arrives at a challenging moment for job seekers. LinkedIn research finds that 72% of professionals in India are actively looking for a new role this year, while 76% say the search has become harder amid greater competition and widening skill gaps linked to AI. The top two industries hiring in Surat and Vadodara are Technology and IT Services & Consulting, signalling a shift beyond the state’s traditional manufacturing and textile strongholds.
Nirajita Banerjee, LinkedIn Career Expert and India Senior Managing Editor, says, “This year’s list shows how India’s growth story is becoming more distributed, with emerging cities building serious, multi-sector job markets of their own. Legacy industries in these cities are being joined by technology, financial services, infrastructure, and services. For job seekers, that means location should become a more active part of career planning. Look at where employers are investing, which sectors are gaining momentum, and whether your skills can travel across industries. Expanding your search beyond metros and into adjacent roles can reveal credible career paths in markets that are growing faster than many professionals realise.”
Emerging cities are building broader economies beyond legacy industries
Across this year’s list, cities are widening their economic base by building on established strengths and attracting new sources of growth. Visakhapatnam is combining its port, pharma, and manufacturing economy with major AI, data centre, and technology investments, while Ludhiana is adding steel, aviation, and hospitality to its manufacturing base.
Surat is extending beyond textiles and diamonds through startups, exports, and real estate, as Vadodara attracts technology, engineering, and enterprise investment alongside chemicals and machinery. Vijayawada is following a similar path, with rising interest from IT and e-governance companies adding to its commercial economy.
Infrastructure investment is translating local growth into new jobs
As cities broaden their economic base, infrastructure is creating demand across hospitality, technology, manufacturing, and commercial services. Prayagraj’s metro network, Ganga Expressway, and expanded tourism capacity are generating year round opportunities in hospitality and services.
Rajkot’s international airport and medical device park are strengthening industrial and export linked employment, while Jabalpur’s road upgrades and focus on GCCs are drawing technology and commercial roles. In Vijayawada, better connectivity to Hyderabad and new development around Amaravati are widening opportunities across IT, real estate, and business services, while Ranchi’s smart city projects and major industrial investments are supporting jobs beyond its traditional mining economy.
National banks, industrial conglomerates, and educational institutions are emerging as key employers
IT services and technology consulting feature among the top three hiring industries in all 10 Cities on the Rise, while banking and financial services feature in eight. This shows that even as each city builds on distinct local strengths, nationally relevant professional roles are becoming more widely available beyond metros.
Employers including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Group entities, HCLTech, Tata Consultancy Services, and Concentrix are adding scale to these local job markets, while leading universities Banaras Hindu University, Lovely Professional University, KL University, and IIT (ISM) Dhanbad are strengthening both jobs and talent supply.
Here’s the full list of LinkedIn’s Cities on the Rise 2026 for India:
- Visakhapatnam
- Ludhiana
- Surat
- Vadodara
- Prayagraj
- Rajkot
- Jabalpur
- Ranchi
- Raipur
- Vijayawada
Methodology
LinkedIn determined the ranking of Cities on the Rise by identifying areas experiencing the strongest job market momentum and more workers moving in versus out.
Job market momentum is measured by the year-over-year growth in hiring and jobs — looking at the change in the total number of members who have added a new position to their LinkedIn profile, as well as the change in the number of job postings, in a given year, divided by the average number of LinkedIn members in that area.
Migration is measured by the year-over-year change in the inflow-outflow ratio, or the total number of inflows divided by the total number of outflows, in a given year. The inflow-outflow ratio indicates how many LinkedIn members have entered an area for every member who has exited based on the location listed on their profile.
To be ranked, an area’s hiring, jobs and migration growth rates needed to be within the top 50th percentile or above across all Indian regions, and exhibit positive net migration over the past year. Areas with more than 2.5 million LinkedIn members were excluded to better highlight emerging labor market dynamics in mid-sized and smaller metros.
This analysis represents the world seen through the lens of LinkedIn data and is based on anonymised and aggregated datasets analyzing millions of Indian member profiles and job postings from March 1, 2024 to February 1, 2026.
City Insights
Top hiring industries and employers are based on the industries and companies that hired the largest share of members in each area from February 1, 2024 to February 1, 2026. Flexible work availability measures jobs flagged as “remote” or “hybrid” in the area or containing similar keywords from February 1, 2025 to February 1, 2026.
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