New flexi staffing jobs grew at its slowest pace in 10 quarters on a sequential basis in the quarter ended December 2022, revealed a report by industry body Indian Staffing Federation (ISF) amid a dip in IT sector jobs and cautious hiring by companies.
The October-December 2022 quarter witnessed a 0.8% increase on a sequential basis in new flexible job opportunities, even amid a cautious employment market, according to the Flexi Staffing Employment Growth Report. Flexi staffing grew by 6.1% in the previous quarter. “Despite the typical trend of reduced hiring momentum in the last quarter of a calendar year, new flexi jobs continued to exhibit growth,” the report said, while noting that the growth rate was slower compared to previous quarters. Prior to this, flexi staffing jobs had dipped by 7% sequentially in the April to June 2021 quarter, before recovering and registering a 1% growth in the July-September 2021 quarter.
On a year-on-year basis, the staffing industry, however, grew by 16.2% in the third quarter of the fiscal.
During the quarter under review, the general staffing industry, excluding IT staffing, grew by 1.1%, with demand from sectors including FMCG, e-commerce, manufacturing, retail, logistics, banking, hospitality, tourism, insurance and infrastructure. IT staffing in India mirrored the global slowdown in hiring in the sector and registered a 2.5% dip in flexi jobs headcount on a sequential basis. It, however, grew by 4.7% in the October-December 2022 quarter compared to a year ago.
Suchita Dutta, executive director, the Indian Staffing Federation noted that the latest data on flexi staffing shows a mixed picture. “While it’s natural for there to be fluctuations in hiring patterns during the lean period of the October-December quarter, we believe that the IT staffing industry in India has the potential for strong growth in the future,” she said.
In calendar year 2022, member companies of the ISF added 0.19 million flexi jobs.