Geography of opportunity is changing

This article is authored by Kushal Bhargava, founder, MyBranch.

For decades, building a career in India often meant moving to Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru or another major metro where jobs and professional networks were concentrated. That equation is beginning to change.

Growth (Representative Image)

As companies expand beyond traditional business hubs, more professionals are finding opportunities closer to home. This does not diminish the importance of metros, which will remain major centres of employment and innovation. What is changing is that more Indian cities are joining the country's employment story.

According to Foundit, white-collar hiring in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities increased 26% year-on-year in January 2026, compared with 19% growth in Tier 1 cities. In 2025, Coimbatore recorded 24% hiring growth, while Ahmedabad grew 21%.

Opportunities outside the largest metros are also no longer restricted to traditional sales, branch or support functions. Technology, engineering, analytics, finance, digital marketing and operations roles are gaining a stronger foothold across regional cities.

For employers, this opens access to talent pools that may previously have been overlooked. For professionals, it creates the possibility of building meaningful careers without assuming that relocation to a metro is the only route to advancement.

Other changes in the labour market reinforce this trend. India's white-collar gig economy reached 8.23 million jobs in FY26, growing 21% year-on-year, while Tier 2 cities recorded a 31% rise in gig opportunities. Gig and distributed corporate employment are different models, but both point towards work becoming less dependent on one permanent corporate location.

The larger change is in how companies think about where teams need to be located. A business expanding into Jaipur, Indore, Lucknow or Coimbatore may no longer need to build every function around one headquarters. Regional teams can sit closer to customers and local markets while collaborating with colleagues elsewhere.

This can also make talent strategy more resilient by allowing companies to recruit from a wider range of cities instead of competing for the same talent in a handful of metropolitan markets.

For employees, staying closer to home can reduce relocation-related disruption, maintain proximity to family and strengthen local ties. But hiring someone in a regional city is only the first step. The bigger question is whether employees have the professional environment they need to work effectively.

Someone working from Jaipur, Indore, Lucknow or Coimbatore should not have to compromise on reliable connectivity, meeting infrastructure, privacy or a professional workplace simply because they are outside a metro.

This is where flexible workspaces become relevant to the wider decentralisation of employment. They do not create the shift, but they can make it easier for companies to participate in it.

Instead of committing to a large conventional office before the size of a regional team is clear, a company can begin with a smaller workplace and expand as its presence grows. Employees, meanwhile, can access professional infrastructure without relocating simply to find it.

Flexible workspace leasing reached 8.6 million sq. ft. in the first half of 2026, up 32% year-on-year, showing that flexibility is becoming more embedded in corporate workspace and expansion strategies.

India has always had talent beyond its largest cities. What is changing is the ability of companies to reach that talent, build teams around it and provide the infrastructure those teams need to succeed.

The next phase of India's growth may, therefore, be defined less by people moving to where the jobs are, and increasingly by jobs, workplaces and professional opportunities moving closer to where the talent already lives.

(The views expressed are personal)

This article is authored by Kushal Bhargava, founder, MyBranch.