Flexi staffing to rise in government sector: ISF

12.3 mn workers in govt are temporary, make up 43% of total 28.8 mn employed in formal govt jobs

Nearly half the government employees in the formal sector belong to the temporary workforce, which could lead to a rise in flexi hiring, according to Indian Staffing Federation (ISF).

About 12.3 million workers in the government are temporary staff, and constitute 43 per cent of the total 28.8 million employed in formal government jobs, stated Indian Staffing Industry Research 2014 report released by ISF, a body of staffing companies in India, in New Delhi today.

"We observed a rise in the temporary workers in the government sphere. Out of the total temporary staff, close to 10.5 million people have no job contract and hence do not get any social security," said Rituparna Chakraborty, President of ISF. "The government has an increasing requirement for manpower but on the other hand, the employment is declining which means that even government needs flexi-staffing."

The share of permanent employees in the central government declined from 93.6 per cent in 2001 to 88.45 per cent in 2009. These estimates are based on National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) survey data, ISF said.

"Permanent employment by the government is falling even more than the overall employment. This is because temporary employment is rising and accounts for as much as 43 per cent of the government dependent workforce," stated the report.

According to the report, of the 397.4 million Indian workforce in 2013, 49.7 million are employed in the formal sector while 347.7 million are in the informal sector. There was a rise in employment in the formal sector compared to 2011 but that mainly came from temporary nature of jobs. Out of the 7.2 million rise in the formal workforce, 4.7 million came from the temporary jobs.

"The bulk of formal sector employment addition is occurring in the temporary domain. In other words, informal sector growth is slowing and may even be falling over the next few years as it did during the period 2011 to 2013," the report said.

The report stated that India ranked among top five countries in terms of absolute size of flexi staffing industry, however, it fared among the lowest in terms of penetration of labour force.