Country guide · India

Getting a job in India, 2026

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On 21 November 2025 India brought four labour codes into force and replaced 29 central labour laws in one day, and most people working under them still do not know it happened. On 17 September 2026 the provident fund wage ceiling rose from ₹15,000 to ₹25,000, the first change since 2014, and it is not the ₹21,000 figure being reported. Written for two readers at once: an Indian professional who wants their own market described accurately, and anyone moving into India to work.

Country guidePublished 20 September 2026·Every figure checked 20 September 2026·19 min read

21 Nov 2025

Date the four labour codes came into force, replacing 29 central labour laws

Economic Survey 2025-26, ch 12

₹25,000

EPF wage ceiling in force since 17 Sep 2026, up from ₹15,000

Labour Ministry notification S.O. 5109(E), 17 Sep 2026

14.3%

Share of employed Indians in a regular wage or salaried job, Jul to Sep 2025

Economic Survey 2025-26, ch 12

19 lakh

People in India's global capability centres, up from 14 lakh five years earlier

Economic Survey 2025-26, ch 7

Read this before the visa section

Step one is not the visa. Step one is the interview call.

Everything in this guide about permits, thresholds and documents only comes into play after an employer in India has chosen you. Nobody applies for a work permit without an offer letter, and nobody gets an offer letter without an interview. The order is fixed:

Step 1 · what EDZER does
A strong résumé, a strong LinkedIn, and a job search strategy
Step 2
Interview calls from employers in India
Step 3
An offer, and the eligibility checks that come with it
Step 4
Only now: the visa, the permit and the documents below

Postings are down and every role has a queue. Indian recruiters shortlist through an ATS and a six-second scan, and a résumé that does not match the job description word for word rarely reaches a person. Step one is the whole game, and it is the part almost everyone under-invests in.

How a résumé is expected to look in India

Indian convention: one to two pages, no photograph needed for corporate roles, achievement bullets with numbers, and keywords that match the posting. Notice period and current CTC are usually asked for.

Where people actually apply

National Career Service (government) · LinkedIn · Naukri · Indeed India · Shine · foundit

What EDZER does for step one

Your résumé, rewritten for the country. In the format its recruiters expect, by a human writer, with a 90 to 100 ATS score guaranteed
Your LinkedIn profile, rebuilt. Every section written so recruiters searching there find you and read on
Profiles on that country's job portals. Set up and optimised to match, so every application reads the same
A job search strategy document. Which roles, which employers, which portals, in what order, for your profile
An interview prep kit. For the roles you are targeting, so the calls turn into offers
Guidance on where and how to apply for jobs. From our team, so you are not guessing which door to knock on

What EDZER does not do

Visa or work permit applications, or immigration advice of any kind
Document attestation or credential evaluation
Placing you in a job or promising an offer: the recruiter decides selection, on your profile

Our job is to make sure you are presented in the strongest way possible, so that the interview calls come. What happens in the interview is yours.

59,000+ clients across 24+ countries 90 to 100 ATS score guaranteed Delivered in 4 to 6 working days 48-hour review window for changes

Start step one for IndiaRésumé, LinkedIn and the interview kit is the Premium plan. With the job portals, Premium Plus. Pick a plan and pay on the next page; the writer starts the same day.

Have a question first? Ask on WhatsApp. For starting the work, the button above is faster.

Section 01

The market, and what an Indian offer letter actually pays you

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This guide is written for two readers at once: an Indian professional who wants their own market described accurately, and someone coming into India to work, whether that is a foreign national on a work visa or a returning NRI or OCI cardholder. Where the two need different answers, the guide says which answer belongs to whom.

India is unusual among the countries covered on this site in that most of the people reading about it already live in it. So this page does not open with visas. It opens with the market, the labour law that changed underneath it in November 2025, and the arithmetic of an Indian offer letter, because those are the things that both readers get wrong in the same way. The inbound material, visas, registration, OCI, PAN and Aadhaar, sits in section 02.

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The one thing to understand about Indian pay in 2026

The four labour codes changed the statutory definition of "wages". Wages now means basic pay, dearness allowance and retaining allowance. If the allowances a company excludes from that (house rent allowance, special allowance, conveyance and the rest) come to more than half of your total remuneration, the excess is added back into wages. The Ministry of Labour and Employment's own summary of the codes puts it as "50% of total remuneration shall be added back".

The practical effect is large and almost nobody explains it at offer stage. The long Indian habit of setting basic at 20 or 30 per cent of CTC and pushing everything else into special allowance no longer keeps provident fund and gratuity liability down. Employers restructuring to comply raise your provident fund deduction and your gratuity accrual, and lower your monthly take home, while your CTC stays exactly the same. If your net pay fell in 2026 and your CTC did not, this is usually why.

Ministry of Labour and Employment, "India's Labour Reforms: Simplification, Security, and Sustainable Growth", Press Information Bureau release and accompanying document, 21 November 2025. Checked 20 September 2026.

The state of the market, in official numbers only

14.3%Share of all employed Indians aged 15 and over who hold a regular wage or salaried job, July to September 2025. Everyone reading this guide is competing inside that seventh of the workforce. Source: Economic Survey 2025-26, chapter 12.

Indicator	Figure	Period	Source
Unemployment rate, current weekly status, age 15 and over	5.2%	Jul to Sep 2025	Economic Survey 2025-26, ch 12
Unemployment rate, same basis, previous quarter	5.4%	Apr to Jun 2025	Economic Survey 2025-26, ch 12
Labour force participation rate, age 15 and over	55.1%	Jul to Sep 2025	Economic Survey 2025-26, ch 12
Persons employed, age 15 and over	56.2 crore	Jul to Sep 2025	Economic Survey 2025-26, ch 12
Net jobs added over the previous quarter	8.7 lakh	Q2 over Q1 of FY26	Economic Survey 2025-26, ch 12
Regular wage or salaried share of the employed	14.3%	Jul to Sep 2025	Economic Survey 2025-26, ch 12
Casual labour share of the employed	18.9%	Jul to Sep 2025	Economic Survey 2025-26, ch 12
Own account workers and employers	55.8%	Jul to Sep 2025	Economic Survey 2025-26, ch 12
Female labour force participation rate	41.7%	2023-24, from 23.3% in 2017-18	Economic Survey 2025-26, ch 12
Total employment	64.33 crore	2023-24, from 47.5 crore in 2017-18	PIB, Ministry of Labour, 21 Nov 2025

Section 02

The four labour codes, your notice period, and moving to India

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Section 03

Regulated professions, the Indian CV, and what changed

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Free ATS check for India

Not ready to start yet? Get your résumé scored free, and we will tell you exactly what India recruiters would change.

Takes a minute. Your score comes back on this page. A writer from EDZER reviews the file and follows up on WhatsApp about the résumé and LinkedIn work, nothing else.

Your name

WhatsApp number

Where you live now

Where you want to work (up to 5)

Target role or roles

Experience

Highest qualification

Current designation and employer (if working)

When do you plan to apply?

Your current résumé

Used to score your résumé and for our writers to contact you about the résumé and LinkedIn work for India. We do not handle visas or immigration. Never sold or shared. Privacy.

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