Flexi staffing grew 6% in July-Sept, added 78,000 new jobs: Report

78,000 new workers added in this period, marking third straight quarter of growth

Flexi staffing in India expanded for the third quarter straight to grow at 6 per cent in July-September of FY23, said a report on Monday about jobs that have short-term contracts for specific tasks.

Companies added 78,000 new workers for such jobs in July-September, according to the Indian Staffing Federation (ISF), which represents formal staffing, facility management and security service companies.

In the June quarter of FY23, flexi staffing grew 5.6 per cent. Flexible or temporary staffing involves tripartite arrangement between employees, employers and the temporary or leasing agencies. The new jobs added in the September quarter are a combination of those in general staffing and information technology.

“Cumulatively, Indian Staffing Federation’s member companies have added 2.32 lakh new jobs in the past four quarters, i.e. during the period from October 2021 to September 2022”, ISF said in a statement.

General staffing grew 7.3 per cent in the September quarter, on the back of renewed demand from FMCG, e-commerce, manufacturing, retail, logistics, banking, hospitality, tourism, insurance and infrastructure. On the other hand, new jobs in IT staffing remained under pressure on the back of slowdown in global markets, as it grew only 2.2 per cent in the September quarter.

Lohit Bhatia, ISF’s president, said that the staffing industry anticipated a steep rise in demand during the festive season and provided formal workforce different industries required.

“Overall industry showed a resilient growth with new employment generated in the July-September quarter at 20 pe recent year-on-year”, he said.

The ISF report comes after the recent report of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), which showed that the urban unemployment rate in India declined for the fifth consecutive quarter to fall to its lowest levels in over four years.

“Meaningful employment for workers, with full job security and benefits, is ISF’s main goal. Over the last four quarters there has been a steady rise in new jobs in formal employment. We expect this trend to continue in the coming quarters. Except for the IT sector, where demand slowed down, all other industries contributed towards formal employment growth,” said Pramod Pachisia, vice president of ISF.