Flipkart, Amazon create 42,000 temporary jobs this festive season

Temporary employment opportunities are up 25% over last year as firms staff-up to meet festive season demand

There's good news for job seekers amid the economic slowdown. According to reports, temporary employment opportunities are up 25 per cent over last year as companies rushed to staff-up for the festive season. 

According to the Economic Times, demand for temporary staff has been pushed by online sales and festive shopping. Citing staffing firms and e-commerce companies, the financial daily reported that temporary jobs, mainly in delivery and logistics, had reached a new high.

Quoting Yeshab Giri, head of IT staffing & specialties at Randstad India, an HR service provider, the report said that nearly 130,000 seasonal jobs could be created during the festive period in 2017. In fact, according to the report, e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon alone created over 42,000 temporary jobs during their festive season sales. While Flipkart hired over 20,000 temporary staff as its festive sale approached, Amazon was said to be adding over 22,000 temporary staff, the financial daily added.

As reported earlier, the festive season, which lasts nearly five months starting from Ganesh puja till New Year, requires additional staff to handle the spike in orders and deliveries. The demand is especially high for e-commerce companies, logistics, FMCG, hospitality, retail, supply chain, and transport.

Companies in these industries report almost 40-50 per cent of their total business during the festive period such as Diwali and Christmas and hire a lot of temporary resources, including interns and youngsters from colleges and academic institutions.

Apart from Flipkart and Amazon, demand for temporary workers has surged at companies like Samsung and a number of financial technology companies like Paytm, Mobikwik, and Aditya Birla Money, the Economic Times report said while citing staffing firms. 

To meet their requirements during the festive season, companies are set to hire close to 100,000 people as temporary workers, moneycontrol.com has reported last week. 

TeamLease Services Executive Vice-President Rituparna Chakraborty told moneycontrol that the temporary hiring drive would continue all the way to February 2018. She added that between 50,000 to 60,000 temporary jobs would be created during the festival season.