The job market has turned upbeat for gig workers ahead of the festive season, with over 216,000 seasonal jobs likely to be offered in the second half of 2025, according to the latest report from HR solutions firm Adecco India. The seasonal job openings in the second half of 2025 will be 15-20% higher than the corresponding period last year, it added.
In anticipation of marquee events such as Raksha Bandhan, Big Billion Days, Prime Day Sale, Dussehra, and Diwali, the hiring activity has already gained momentum with sectors such as e-commerce, retail, logistics, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), hospitality, travel, and FMCG driving the surge, the report said.
The expected rise in demand for temporary workers is also forcing companies to advance their recruitment cycle to stay ahead of the demand and ensure operational readiness during the “stronger-than-usual” festive season this year.
The report noted that the hiring uptick in the current year is driven by improved consumer sentiment, a favourable monsoon boosting rural demand, aggressive seasonal promotions, and post-election economic optimism.
In terms of geographical trends, the seasonal hiring activity is more robust in tier-II cities as compared to metros. For instance, cities such as Lucknow, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Mysuru, and Varanasi are witnessing a 42% increase in demand, whereas the hiring uptick in metros such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Pune is about 19% more as compared to the same period last year.
“There’s growing traction in emerging hubs such as Kanpur, Kochi, and Vijayawada where the compensations are expected to rise at 18-22% in comparison with 12-15% increase in metro markets. Encouragingly, 23% more women are participating in this seasonal hiring wave compared to previous years, driven by a rising preference for flexible, short-term roles,” the report added.
The hiring activity in each sector has its own drivers. In logistics and delivery sector, where the projected rise will be 30-35%, companies are scaling up last-mile operations in preparation for peak festive demand. In the BFSI sector, firms are significantly ramping up field force deployments for credit card sales and POS (point of sale) installations, particularly across tier-II and -III cities.
However, e-commerce and retail will continue to dominate the job scenario by creating 35-40% of the total seasonal jobs. “Employers are increasingly prioritising multilingual capabilities, customer-handling skills, and digital proficiency, especially for roles in in-store sales, credit card promotions, and delivery fulfillment,” it said.
Deepesh Gupta, director and head of general staffing at Adecco India, said that the focus now is not just on scale but on candidate experience, structured mobilisation, and long-term workforce integration. “With deployment timelines compressed and retention rates improving steadily, seasonal hiring is no longer a stop-gap but a strategic workforce layer, particularly across digital commerce, retail, and financial services,” he said.
Even though the seasonal roles are traditionally being created to fulfil short-term needs, they are are increasingly becoming gateways to formal employment. “Many employers in retail and fintech are now building structured career pathways for high-performing seasonal workers, underlining the strategic shift toward viewing short-term hiring as a long-term talent pipeline,” the report noted.