National, July 29th, 2025: From soaring demand for maids to a fivefold surge in mid-level experience hiring, the household job market is being redefined. WorkIndia, India’s leading blue and grey collar recruitment platform, has released a new report analysing trends in the domestic job market from 2023 to 2024. The data reveals a major shift in hiring and application patterns across household roles such as maids, cooks, caregivers, gardeners, and personal drivers.
One of the major findings is the 114% increase in maid job postings, highlighting a dramatic surge in demand for domestic cleaning services. Overall, job postings in the household segment saw a 4% year-on-year increase, indicating steady growth in this sector.
Interestingly, while demand has grown, job seeker interest has grown faster. Applications for household jobs rose by 63%, suggesting that more individuals are entering the domestic workforce than the available opportunities can absorb. In smaller cities and towns recorded a 95% surge in applications was recorded, even though job postings remained flat, pointing to economic pressures and rising competition in smaller city groups. There has also been a sharp drop in job postings for personal drivers, which has gone down by 48%, possibly due to the increasing popularity of ride-hailing services, which reduce the need for full-time drivers in households.
Educational qualifications also played a role in hiring trends. Job postings declined across most education levels except for candidates with less than a tenth-grade education, where postings rose by 9%. This reflects a demand for workers with basic schooling, especially in roles requiring less formal training. When it comes to experience, mid-level experienced workers saw 5.47 times increase in job postings, while freshers experienced a steep 78% decline. This indicates a clear preference for candidates who have some experience but may not be highly seasoned or expensive.
Gender-based trends also stood out. Job postings for female candidates grew by 45%, driven in large part by the maid category. Conversely, postings for female cooks dropped by 59%, while male cooks saw a 6% rise, indicating a shift in household hiring preferences for food-related roles. The top five titles with the highest number of postings were cook, housemaid, chef, Chinese cook, and Indian cook. This underscores the continued importance of culinary roles in household employment.
Salaries are also rising. The average minimum salary for household workers increased by 7.6%, with cooks receiving an 11% jump. In Tier 1 cities like Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi, average minimum salaries rose by 10%, reflecting both demand and the higher cost of living.
Experience is being rewarded in compensation as well. While freshers saw a 3% decline in average minimum salary, experienced workers received a 14% increase, showing that employers are willing to pay a premium for reliable and skilled domestic help.
Mr. Nilesh Dungarwal, CEO & Co-founder at WorkIndia, said: “India’s household job market is undergoing a pivotal shift. The rising demand for experienced workers and a surge in applications reflect both an evolving domestic employment ecosystem and the economic urgency faced by job seekers. At WorkIndia, we’re committed to bridging this gap by connecting the right talent with the right opportunities, while ensuring dignity and transparency for workers across every household in the country.”
Lastly, the number of applications rose by 35% across both male and female candidates, pointing to a broader workforce movement toward domestic employment, possibly driven by economic necessity or shifting employment patterns.
Overall, WorkIndia’s data paints a picture of a household employment sector in flux, where demand is steady, but job seeker interest is outpacing available roles. The surge in applications, rising wages for experienced workers, and growing gender-specific trends point to a more competitive yet increasingly structured domestic job landscape. As expectations evolve on both sides, the sector is moving toward greater formalisation, skill recognition, and wage transparency.