Festive hiring grows by 20–25% as e-commerce giants gear up for sales

Bengaluru: With e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart to begin their festive sales starting Tuesday (September 23), gig workers, especially in logistics and retail sectors, will be in huge demand and recruitment firms are gearing up to meet strong sales.

Redseer’s latest analysis revealed that e-commerce sales during the 30–35 days leading up to Diwali are projected to cross Rs 1.15 lakh crore GMV (gross merchandise value), growing 20–25 per cent y-o-y and nearly double that of last year’s pace. It also said that this would be the best in the last five years.

Walmart-owned e-commerce company Flipkart and Amazon together have created over 3.7 lakh job opportunities this festive season. Myntra has created more than 11,000 job opportunities through its partners with about 30 per cent of the additional warehouse workforce comprising women. The new roles span logistics, customer service, and last-mile operations across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi, the company said. E-tailer Meesho alone will create 12 lakh jobs ahead of the festive season. The roles will largely involve first-mile, middle-mile, and delivery associates, responsible for duties such as picking, sorting, loading, unloading, and handling returns.

Nitin Dave, CEO of Quess Staffing Solutions, told DH that they are seeing hiring grow by about 20–25 per cent over last year, especially across temporary, gig and frontline categories. The strongest momentum is in auto, where demand is up 20–25 per cent and in electronics and AV (Audio-Visual) manufacturing which are higher by 15–20 per cent.

"Phone assembly units have seen over 50 per cent growth in the past two months, while quick commerce is expanding by around 20 per cent and e-commerce by 15–20 per cent. BFSI continues to hire strongly for retail sales and credit support roles and retail demand is steady at almost the same level as last year," Dave said.

Compared to the last festive season, which was relatively subdued, this year, industry experts said that they are witnessing a surge in demand, especially in tier-2 cities.

Sonal Arora, Country Manager, GI Group Holding, a provider of HR and recruitment services, said they are predicting that overall employment demand will rise by 20-25 per cent over the previous year due to improved consumer sentiment, growing online retail penetration, and increased demand for dependable, quick delivery.

Festive consumption patterns are also anticipated to be positively impacted by the recent changes to the GST rates in sectors including consumer goods and fast-moving consumer goods. "This will encourage firms to reevaluate their pricing and promotions, which would increase demand for labour in supply chains and retail," Arora said.

Arora added that employers are increasingly turning high-performing temporary and contract recruits into long-term positions this season, in contrast to the previous year, when holiday hiring was mostly limited to short-term tasks.

There are a few big drivers this year. "Consumer sentiment is strong, especially around discretionary spending, which is pushing companies to be ready with more people on the ground. The government’s announcements are also playing a role; the Prime Minister’s message on August 15 about rationalising GST rates is expected to reduce the cost of several consumer goods, giving a further boost to buying during the festive season. The spread of demand into non-metro cities is another big factor," said Aditya Narayan Mishra, MD and CEO of CIEL HR.

'We are gearing up to verify 12 lakh workers'

Identity verification platform IDfy, which supported businesses in onboarding over 8 lakh temporary workers and delivery riders last festive season, said it is gearing up to verify close to 12 lakh workers this year.

"We project over 35,000 profiles may carry potential risks, and our goal is to help businesses keep fraud out while ensuring millions of festive orders are delivered smoothly and securely," said Paritosh Desai, CMO, IDfy.