Healthcare, IT, pharma and e-commerce to drive temp staffing in FY22: ISF

The Indian Staffing Federation (ISF) on Monday said its 100 odd member firms saw a sharp recovery from second quarter, “indicating corporate India’s recovery and staffing companies’ agility towards Covid proof sectors”.

“The top 5 sectors to drive temp demand are Healthcare, IT & ITeS, Pharma, Edutech and Ecommerce,” ISF said in a report, adding that these are also the sectors which will lead employment growth in upcoming quarters.

Despite a challenging year, Indian Staffing industry ended FY21 with a modest growth over the previous fiscal. “Despite the challenges, the staffing industry not only ended the FY 2021 with a modest 3.6% growth over Mar’20 and but also concluded with more than 1.03 million flexi staff across industries,” said Lohit Bhatia, president of ISF.

ISF said FY21 saw 31% growth in flexi work compared to other formats of employment and women participation in flexi workforce grew 6% during the period.

Findings state that IT & ITeS will be driven by digital integration and investment in automation processes will grow as tech firms bet big on entry level talents. The hiring growth in ed-tech sector will be primarily due to shift to digital solutions and collaborative platforms.

“With over 31% growth in flexi work compared to other formats of employment, our study shows the growing acceptance of formal contract employment options. The fact that when the focus to ensure social protection is provided, it can turn around the employment scenario,” said Suchita Dutta, executive director of ISF.

Fixed term employment, gig jobs and flexi staffing are on a high since the outbreak of the pandemic as several sectors re-calibrated their human resource requirement and expenditure. But critics look at them with suspicion as such works do not provide job security and are floating in nature.