Telangana retains third position among talent positive states, beefs up talent pull

Hyderabad: India's youngest state of Telangana has retained its third position, after Karnataka and Haryana, among the country's six white-collar talent-positive states over the past 12 months, while also beefing up its appeal as a talent magnet.According to talent solutions provider Xpheno's third annual study on talent corridors and talent exchange patterns, over 25 lakh jobseekers, including freshers, from other states marked Telangana as their preferred next destination.Of these, around 12 lakh were from other megacities, including 4.3 lakh active jobseekers from Bengaluru alone who identified Hyderabad as a preferred career destination, highlighting Telangana's growing pull as a major talent hub.The study said Telangana recorded 77,800 white-collar talent absorptions against 52,300 talent exits during the period, resulting in a positive talent balance of 25,500.Karnataka topped the list with a positive talent balance of 74,000, followed by Haryana at 26,700.Telangana's accessible white-collar talent base rose to 48.9 lakh in FY26, up 17% from 41.9 lakh in FY25 and 37.3 lakh in FY24. Of this active pool, 23.9 lakh (49%) were experienced professionals with at least one year of work experience.In Telangana, Hyderabad dominates the pool of experienced professionals with 23.7 lakh experienced professionals, while Warangal, Medak, Nalgonda and Nizamabad together contribute 52,700.Xpheno co-founder Kamal Karanth said Hyderabad's biggest draw is its success in attracting global capability centres from marquee companies across sectors, including Heineken, McDonald's, Marriott, Eli Lilly and MSD.The study noted that talent contribution from locations outside Hyderabad has nearly doubled from the previous period. Technology remains the biggest employer, accounting for 39% of the active experienced talent pool, or 9.42 lakh professionals. It is followed by BFSI, business consulting and services, healthcare and pharmaceuticals.By function, engineering leads with 4.90 lakh professionals, followed by business development and sales at 3.02 lakh, and IT at 2.76 lakh.Around 35% of the active experienced white-collar workforce holds qualifications in computer science and IT. Telangana also produces more than one lakh engineers annually. The report also highlighted Telangana's strong inbound and outbound talent corridors with major talent states and megacities.Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra remain the top states for two-way talent movement with Telangana, while the United States has emerged as the leading overseas corridor for white-collar talent moving to and from the state.By contrast, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar were identified as talent-negative states, with net talent losses ranging from 9,000 to 22,000.