Half a million seasonal jobs to be created this festive season in India

INTERNATIONAL DESK: This festive period, 300,000 to half a million seasonal jobs are likely to be created as demand for temporary staff surges up to 35% over last year on the back of a recovering economy, improving Covid-19 situation and pent-up demand, say staffing services providers.

Companies in ecommerce, food delivery, automobile, manufacturing and allied sectors are gearing up for the festive season, hoping that consumers will be more open to spending than last year. There is also demand for temporary workers from the financial services, consumer goods, retail, IT and telecom industries, said staffing services companies such as Quess, TeamLease Services, Randstad, Adecco, Manpower and KellyOCG.

“There is a rise in demand for delivery partners, picker/packers, store promoters, logistics staff, field sales and customer care executives, and more,” said Manu Saigal, director-general, staffing, Adecco India.

Ecommerce is a key driver of the demand, with online shopping gaining acceptance — not just in top cities, but also small towns and even villages — during the pandemic, when mobility was severely curtailed for the common man.

“Most offline retailers have gone digital and are strategically planning their workforce to meet seasonal demands,” said Yeshab Giri, director, staffing, Randstad India. Tech startups, ecommerce and food delivery (companies) are hiring as much as 40% more temp staff now, compared with the previous months, he said.

The ecommerce sector is expected to add 40 million active shoppers in 2021, double that of 2020, taking its user base to 190 million, said Ajoy Thomas, business head (retail, ecommerce, logistics and transportation), TeamLease Services. “This positive growth trajectory will continue to boost hiring in this segment, especially in the upcoming festive season.”

Companies hiring temp staff include Flipkart, Amazon, Swiggy, Zomato, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Byju’s, Vedanta, Hindustan Unilever, Samsung, Xiaomi and Tata AIG, said staffing firms.

“We are significantly expanding our supply chain and have opened several large and small warehouses across various states. This will generate thousands of full-time and seasonal job opportunities,” said a Flipkart spokesperson.

The ecommerce firm had created 50,000 direct jobs in the festive period of 2019 and 70,000 last year, the spokesperson said, adding, “We expect to continue the impact creation this festive season as well.”

Temp staffing demand has been increasing since August and the current season is expected to be ahead of 2020 at least by 25-30%, said Lohit Bhatia, workforce management president, Quess Corp.

With a ramp-up in vaccination, consumers have started feeling safer to venture out and hence, footfall is likely to increase at retail shops, said Alok Kumar, senior director, Manpower. “Seasonal hiring is buoyant this year, following a surge in online buying and a pickup in offline retail,” he said. “Moreover, this is well ahead of the actual festival season.”

KellyOCG expects the demand for contingent workers to go up by 35% as compared to last year, said Pete Hamilton, the staffing services company’s vice-president and regional director-APAC.
(The Economic Times)