(MENAFN- Live Mint)

BENGALURU/MUMBAI: After record seasonal hiring during the festival period, gig workers stare an unusually lean period this new year.

By the end of December, short-term contracts of thousands of gig and temporary workers hired by e-commerce, logistics, and consumer goods companies to handle the festive season demand will end. They will find themselves without jobs, struggling to secure their next opportunity.

Hiring agencies predict that from January onward, the market will see an unusually large pool of gig talent available for recruitment. Many may have to accept lower pay or less favourable terms to stay employed.

“Barely 5–10% of the temporary staffing will get absorbed in the same company," said Neeti Sharma, chief executive officer of staffing and talent solutions firm TeamLease Digital.“The gig workers move across platforms and after the festive season, the remuneration will see a 15–20% drop for them."

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According to TeamLease's data, 3–7% of such temporary and gig workers were absorbed by client firms last year.

Temporary workers are on the staffing vendor's payroll and deployed at the client company, with their contracts typically lasting 3 to 11 months. Gig workers are often hired for shifts that are limited to a few hours a day.

The number of people seeking jobs after the peak hiring period is expected to be higher this year as agencies recruited about 20% more gig and temporary workers in 2025 than in the previous year. The intake had spiked as retailers and consumer brands anticipated a surge in demand after a shorter summer that caused an inventory pile-up of seasonal white goods.

The consumption this year was driven by an early onset of the festive season, wider access to online shopping, and expectations of higher consumer spending due to tax savings.

Reverse-migration likely

In India, the festive season starts with Ganesh Chaturthi, which fell in the last week of August this year compared with September last year. The auspicious period of buying stretches even after Diwali, concluding towards the end of December.

To manage the spike in demand, employers hire additional fleet-on-street workers to deliver parcels, drivers, and manpower to sort packages in warehouses. To attract them for longer hours, companies across sectors offer to increase their regular wages by 15-20%. Delivery partners also get surge bonuses, attendance rewards, and higher per-delivery pay.

The quick-commerce, e-commerce, retail, banking, and hospitality sectors partner with staffing vendors to provide them with manpower, and many such workers hail from smaller towns.

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“Barely 3% will get absorbed (after the festival season), and the rest will be put in other projects or some may go to other staffing firms," said Aditya Narayan Mishra, managing director of CIEL HR Service, which has a temporary workforce of about 50,000 deployed at client sites.“The hiring demand may not be very strong in the coming quarters."

Recruiters estimate that those selected during the festive period may move to the construction sector, and many will prefer to shift to tier 2 and 3 cities for more affordable living standards.

“30-40% of those recruited may find it difficult to get jobs immediately,“particularly the gig workforce", unless they decide to go back to their old chores, Sunil Chemankotil, country manager at staffing firm Adecco, told Mint.

Hiring platforms prepare

Platforms like MyJobee, which primarily caters to quick commerce and e-commerce firms, are bracing for the impact.

“Consumer spending hasn't picked up as strongly as expected, and many companies are being more cautious with budgets because of rising costs and broader economic uncertainty. As a result, a lot of businesses are holding back on extending short-term contracts or adding new gig roles until demand stabilizes," said Sujay Pidara, founder and CEO of blue-collar recruitment platform MyJobee.

Blue-collar workers are individuals engaged in manual or hourly wage-based jobs such as delivery, warehousing, manufacturing, driving, and field services.

Amazon, Flipkart and Eternal declined to comment. Swiggy did not respond to Mint's queries until press time.

Third-party logistics and supply chain services provider Emiza, which hired 80% more gig workers this festive season over the previous year, said it is making efforts to absorb its seasonal workforce into its daily operations after the festive period ends.

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Staffing firm Quess Corp is considering hiring gig workers in large numbers after the festive season as part of its temporary workforce.

“We had hired about 9,000 employees a month (gross addition and net intake will be lower), largely from the gig talent pool last year after the festive season got over," said Lohit Bhatia, president-workforce management at Quess Corp.“This year, we have created a capacity to generate 20,000 (hiring) a month because we want to be ready for the extra hands needed during the summers...."

Bhatia pointed out that gig employees may want to shift to temporary payrolls, given that they receive provident funds and medical benefits, and about 40% get recruited by the client as permanent employees after a couple of years.

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