Demand  for  temporary,  gig  workers peaks  as festive  season  orders  surge

“This festive season, hiring has beaten all previous records. This time, the festivals are clubbed together, so that brings with it more recruitment. Pre-pandemic, during the festive season, about 200,000 would get hired. Now, with gig workforce and organized temp staffing, the numbers can cross 400,000,” said Lohit Bhatia, president of the Indian Staffing Federation, an apex body authorized to discuss with government agencies and trade bodies on behalf of the staffing industry.

Though there is no strict delineation between gig and temp workers, gig work is used to refer to short-duration work, while temp workers are hired for several months at a stretch. Temp staffing is relatively more organized as well, and when hired via staffing firms, workers have access to benefits and insurance.

Mint reported last week that Indians spent more time and money buying appliances, electronic goods, and jewellery in the past 30 days. While the market for premium and luxury products was least affected by the pandemic, entry-level goods took a hit. However, companies said that had changed now.

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

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

However, Chakraborty cautioned that the hiring scale-ups would go down once the festive season, which lasts till December end, gets over.

Over the last couple of years, the gig workforce has gained prominence, with companies providing 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 expand to $455 billion at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% by 2024 and has the potential to expand at least 2X the pre-pandemic estimates. India is also likely to have 350 million gig jobs by 2025.

Recruitment firm Adecco saw a 13.5% uptick in temp hiring in October so far, compared with the same period last year.

For the July-September period, when companies prepare for the festive season, temp hiring was 30.5% higher than in 2021.

The war for talent is also pushing companies to offer extra incentives to retain their own staff. A senior executive at one of the leading staffing firms said floor managers who get ₹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 run-up to the festive season, there have been more than 30,000 open mandates that continued even during Diwali,” the executive said.