India will employ 2.9 million flexi staff by 2018, thereby becoming the third largest country to employ contract employees globally, according to a report.

Indian Staffing Federation (ISF), an apex body of flexi staffing industry, on Thursday at the 49th Ciett World Employment Conference, unveiled its yearly comprehensive report titled Indian Flexi Staffing Industry Research 2016: Sectoral and State Analysis.

With an acceleration rate of 12.3% over 2015-18, flexi-staffing is becoming the job creation engine where over nine million youth would be added to the organised workforce in the next 20 years, a release said. Most of the contribution to overall flexi staff would come from 11 states which will dominate the formal employment landscape.