Hiring in the first 10 months of the current year has improved marginally from the year-ago period, suggests an ET analysis of data from HSBC and S&P Global Market Intelligence. The jobs component of the seasonally adjusted HSBC India Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 53.8 in the first 10 months of 2025 from 52.5 on average during the same period last year. Executives at Vedanta Group and RPG as well as leading economists confirmed the trend. Bigger companies are adding to their workforce in response to sustained demand, stronger order pipelines and investments in emerging areas, experts said.