Visakhapatnam Tops LinkedIn’s Cities on the Rise Ranking; Vijayawada Slipped to 10th

Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam has retained the top position in LinkedIn’s “Cities on the Rise” ranking for the second consecutive year, reinforcing its emergence as a major hub for digital infrastructure and industrial growth. Vijayawada, which ranked third last year, slipped to 10th in the latest edition.

The ranking, compiled by LinkedIn News and its data scientists, identifies emerging urban centres where job opportunities, hiring activity and talent migration are growing. It is based on anonymised data from millions of LinkedIn member profiles and job postings between March 2024 and February 2026.

According to the report, Visakhapatnam’s strong performance has been driven by large-scale investments, including Google’s proposed $15-billion AI hub, Reliance’s `1.6 lakh crore data centre project, and expansions by Infosys, Cognizant and Accenture.

The report identified IT services, chemical manufacturing and technology as the city's leading hiring sectors, with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Laurus Labs and Miracle Software Systems among the major employers. It also noted that 17.1 per cent of jobs in the city were remote and 5.2 per cent were hybrid.

Vijayawada’s inclusion in the top 10 was attributed to increasing investments across Andhra Pradesh, improved connectivity through planned infrastructure projects and commercial growth linked to the Amaravati Outer Ring Road.

The report said IT services, technology and credit intermediation were the key hiring sectors in Vijayawada, with HCLTech, Tata Consultancy Services and KL University among the leading recruiters.

The rankings assess year-on-year growth in hiring, job postings and net migration of professionals. Only cities with fewer than 2.5 million LinkedIn members and positive net talent inflows were considered.