Festive season sees about 4 lakh temp+gig workforce employed

India Inc has hired a record four lakh gig or temporary workers to meet growing demand this festive season. The fillip in consumer demand after two years of the pandemic; the last mile delivery hiring by logistics, e-commerce and food tech platforms have led to many last minute hiring said industry analysts. “This festive season hiring has beaten all previous records. This time, the festivals are clubbed together so that brings with it more recruitments. In pre-pandemic, during the festive season, about two lakh would get hired. Now with gig workforce and organized temp staffing, the numbers can cross four lakh,” said Lohit Bhatia, President, Indian Staffing Federation, which is the apex body representing the Staffing industry / Private Employment Services that is authorised to discuss with government agencies and other trade bodies on behalf of the staffing industry/ private employment service

Mint reported last week that Indian shoppers spent more time and money buying appliances, electronic goods, and jewelry in the past 30 days, celebrating the first festive season in three years without covid-related restrictions.

In its report, Mint had said that while the market for premium and luxury products was least affected by the pandemic, entry-level goods took a hit. But companies said that had changed now, with demand emerging for low-end goods as people refresh their homes and wardrobes after two years.

Prominent staffing companies said the demand was so high that last-minute client mandates were tough to fulfill.

“Temp hiring was tough to fulfill even when mandates came in last minute as candidates already had an assignment. Appetite for shorter contract has upped for 45 days to 3 months. They are ready to pay a premium 10-15% more for such assignments. Temp staffing used to be about 9 months typically,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder and executive director of TeamLease Services.

However, Chakraborty cautioned that the hiring scale ups will go down once the festive season, which lasts from September to December end, gets over.

Over the last couple of years, gig workforce has gained prominence with companies providing for insurance and benefits to attract them for shorter stints. According to a report dated May 2021 by ASSOCHAM, India’s gig sector is expected to increase to $455 billion at a CAGR of 17% by 2024 and has the potential to expand at least 2x the pre-pandemic estimates. In another estimate, India is likely to have 350 million gig jobs by 2025.

Recruitment firm Adecco saw a 13.5% uptick in temp hiring in the October month so far compared to same period last year. For the July-September period , when companies are prepping up for the festive season, the temp hiring was 30.5% more when compared to 2021.

The war for talent is also pushing companies to roll out additional incentives to retain their own staff. A senior executive in one of the leading staffing firms said that floor managers who get Rs 20,000 a month could earn a bonus about five times more if they clocked in extra hours during the festive season.

“In 2019, we had 20,000 open positions a couple of months before the festive season which we closed as the season got over. But this time at any given point during the runup to festive season, there have been more than 30,000 open mandates that continued even during Diwali,’ said the senior executive.