Flexible Work & Inclusive Hiring Drive Rise in Women's Workforce Participation: Apna Report

By: WE staff | Friday, 9 May 2025

• Women's participation in the labour force improved during the first quarter of the year
• Expansion due to flexible work arrangements that enable work-life balance
• Hiring practices that are inclusive helped improve female workforce representation

As per professional networking site Apna, women workforce participation increased dramatically in the first quarter of 2025, led by flexible work, inclusive hiring, and rising job opportunities in Tier II and Tier III cities. Apna's India at Work – Q1 2025 report showed a record 1.81 crore job applications—a 30 percent  increase over last year—indicating increasing economic optimism and a boom in digital hiring across sectors.

62 lakh women job applications were submitted, up by a whopping 23 percent from the previous year. The growth in fields like BPO, finance, and HR, and the cities of Chandigarh, Indore, and Jamshedpur, was very high in this case. While fresher’s uploaded more than 66 lakh job applications, representing a whopping 46 percent rise from previous year.

Small and Medium Business enterprises (SMBs) took the lead and posted more than 2.1 lakh jobs, which included 28,547 postings specially meant for women. Major corporations also accelerated hiring, with recruiters like LIC, Paytm, Delhivery, and Flipkart posting over 1 lakh jobs collectively—most of which opened up outside metro areas to access the national pool of talent. Interestingly, over 40 percent of the new users on the platform hailed from Tier II and III cities, with most of these having double-digit increases in job applications. The number of applications for business jobs by women increased by 92 percent.

In addition, Apna experienced a year-on-year jump of 65.4 percent in software and web developer job listings and 42.2 percent more applications for tech roles by fresher’s. This speaks volumes about growing demand for qualified professionals in business analytics, cybersecurity, AI/ML, and data-driven functions.

Cities like Indore, Jaipur, Lucknow, Rajkot, and Warangal are emerging as significant players in hiring technology talent and are filling gaps in established technology clusters such as Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, and Mumbai. These cities are gaining the advantage of higher connectivity to engineering talent, professional qualifications, and cutting-edge digital infrastructure that is leading to 30–50 percent year-on-year growth in tech job applications.

The study identifies a shift towards decentralised technology talent hubs, fortifying Tier II and III cities as the drivers of India's digital future. With India's digital economy poised to touch over USD 1 trillion by 2030, these cities are poised to become the hub of influencing innovation and transforming the tech hiring scene.