Flexi staffing grew 6.6% in April-June quarter, adds 66,000 jobs: ISF

Employment through the flexi staffing industry picked up pace for the second consecutive quarter to grow at 6.6 per cent in April-June period of FY23, adding 66,000 new workers, according to the Indian Staffing Federation (ISF), the industry body that represents formal staffing companies.

In comparison, during the December and March quarters of FY22, the flexi staffing increased 3.8 per cent and 4.2 per cent respectively.
 

Commonly known as temporary staffing, flexible staffing is a tripartite arrangement between the employees, employers and the temporary or leasing agencies. Earlier in March 2018, government has allowed fixed term employment in all sectors in a bid to improve the ease of doing business for players intending to hire people for completing specified projects or orders.

Formal flexi employment growth was largely witnessed from sectors like ecommerce, retail, manufacturing, BFSI, as they generated high demand, said the Federation.

“At 6.6 per cent, Q1 FY23 growth, ISF members added a significant 66,000 new jobseekers to India’s formal workforce in the quarter, taking the total workforce employed through them to 1.29 million. We expect the trend to continue over the next few quarters,” said Pramod Pachisia, vice president, Indian Staffing Federation.

Lohit Bhatia, President, Indian Staffing Federation said the June quarter flexi staffing industry report shows a robust new employment growth through formal staffing companies. “Consumer confidence is elevated and the demand across sectors remains high,” he added.  

Further, the industry body said 15 per cent flexi workforce moved to permanent employment while 82 per cent preferred to continue as a flexi employee, showing greater attrition and the continuous upskilling by the employees, as more than 50 percent employees reported receiving training and skill enhancement while employed with a formal staffing company.

The growth in the staffing demand was led by the sectors like e-commerce, retail, manufacturing, banking and financial services in the June quarter, ISF reported.

Bhatia said IT staffing industry demand remains cautious but employment is continuing with promising growth from fintech, IT infra, cloud, cyber security and data analytics to address demands for digital adoption across sectors. 

The ISF report comes in the wake of a recent report by ManPower Group which said that India has the best hiring outlook globally, second only to Brazil, with 54 percent of companies surveyed planning to hire in the December quarter as against 51 per cent in the September quarter.