Women's participation in workforce up 23% y-o-y in Q1 2025

BENGALURU: Driven by flexible work options, greater focus on gender diversity and more opportunities in sectors like BPO, finance and HR, women's participation in the country's workforce saw a 23% year-on-year (y-o-y) increase in the first quarter of 2025. Of the total 1.81 crore job applications, over 62 lakh came from women, and the shift was felt across the spectrum—freshers, mothers re-entering the workforce, and career switchers all contributed, according to Apna’s latest 'India at Work – Quarter (Q1) 2025' report.

Applications from women for enterprise roles have also doubled (92% surge), reaching 7.3 lakh applications. This growth was most pronounced in Tier 2 and 3 cities such as Chandigarh (142%), Indore(131%), and Jamshedpur (146%), the report added. In these regions, women are stepping into both established and traditionally male-dominated fields, including field sales, logistics, security, and mechanical engineering.  

 Enterprise hiring rose sharply with companies such as LIC, Paytm, Delhivery, and Flipkart creating over 1 lakh openings, the report stated.

While Tier 1 cities such as Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, and Kolkata continued to see the highest numbers—over 32 lakh applications—the fastest momentum was outside the metros, where women submitted more than 25 lakh applications, up 35% from last year.

 Nirmit Parikh, Founder & CEO of Apna said, "Applications from women for enterprise roles didn’t just rise, they saw a 92% leap. Fresher applications crossed 66 lakh. Enterprises scaled hiring into non-metro regions, and SMBs emerged as the largest job creators — not just in metros, but across 900 cities."

The report also points out that the country's fresher job market saw significant momentum in the first quarter with a 46% y-o-y rise and over 66 lakh applications submitted. This surge is fuelled by a mix of macroeconomic optimism, digital-first recruitment, and high demand for early-career talent in rapidly growing sectors like BPO, finance, sales, software development, and retail.

Southern states such as Karnataka, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu added close to 16 lakh applications, with Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai seeing strong growth in developer and operations roles. In the north and east, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Jharkhand contributed over 11 lakh applications.