Annual public holidays such as recent Deepavali and upcoming Christmas has driven the increasing demand for temporary employees, especially to fill e-commerce delivery needs and retail stores. Coupled with unsteady job market, regular recruiters are forced to take in temporary candidates during this festive season. Head hunters, who see less than 10 percent growth in permanent hires, said their clients are hiring 15 to 20 percent more in temp job hiring instead.

Managing Director of Kelly Services, a head hunting firm, Thammaiah BN said that during today’s economy, market is unstable while laying off permanent staff could be risky as well. Therefore, more companies are moving towards temp workers. Among most sought after positions for temp jobs include delivery executives, shop floor managers for e-commerce and retail, sales personnel for fintech industries. While the salaries have remained the same, the demand has risen.

Retailers see a 15 to 20 percent increase in the temp staff hiring. A spokesperson from Future Group said their organisation would have an increase of around 15 percent more temp staff at stores across the group, aligning with high consumer demand, expected business numbers, and more number of stores. Demand is also seen among online sweet retailers who see an uptick in corporate and personal gifting.

Among those who see upsurge in demand is PlaceofOrigin. With 50 percent jump in demand, the firm has doubled their hiring mainly for super packaging and logistics, said its co-founder Ashish Nichani. Meanwhile, Salebhai has hired 32 percent temp work force this year mostly to handle customer support, logistics and IT, Times of India reports.

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In general, retailers employ temp workers through staffing agencies, as well as graduates from tier 2 and 3 B-schools. Hiring firms witness a nearly 10 percent increase in the number of fresh graduates trained and hired for the roles in the delivery, procurement, and IT teams.

“Last year, we saw freshers contributing to 15 percent of the workforce. Now it is between 22-25 percent. However, even a 1 percent increase means a significant rise (of tens of thousands) in jobs. This year, the demand is much higher,” said Suchita Dutta, executive director, Indian Staffing Federation.

“We see no growth in hires for permanent jobbers and a 15 percent growth in temp hiring, which saw an 8 percent growth the previous year,” said Dinesh Goel, co-founder, Aasaanjobs.

Additionally, recruiters added that fresh graduates who see not much choices of career option within today’s flat job market are opting for temp jobs. “Over two years ago, hires used to be for 12 months and companies were more liable to keep them. Now the anchor has moved to hiring for 3-4 months as freshers consider it ok to start off with temp jobs and then move on to better jobs later. Also, the pay per month is higher when you work for a shorter period of time,” added Asaanjob’s Goel.

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