Mumbai, 17th November, 2025: Adecco India today released its Festive Hiring Analysis for the August–October period, reporting a 25% surge in gig and temporary jobs compared to the same period in 2024. Driven by heightened consumer sentiment, attractive festive promotions, and wider geographic penetration, overall hiring volumes grew by 17% year-on-year across key consumption-linked sectors. Adecco had projected 2.16 lakh gig and temporary jobs in 2025, and within just three months, the industry has seen 37% growth in temporary hiring and 15-20% uptick in deployment of gig workers underscoring the strength of seasonal demand.
The weeks leading up to Dussehra and beyond saw a sharp rise in temporary staffing across retail, e-commerce, BFSI, logistics, and hospitality. Intensified e-commerce sales during major festive events drove demand for warehouse, delivery, and customer-support roles, while Diwali triggered the largest wave of hiring across offline retail, BFSI campaigns, and hospitality segments. Industry data supports this trend as India’s e-commerce sector recorded a 24% year-on-year rise in Diwali 2025 order volumes, led by a 120% surge in quick commerce and strong demand from Tier-II cities, reflecting both consumption depth and the need for scalable, flexible workforces.
• Retail and E-commerce led the surge with hiring up by 28% over 2024, as omni-channel retail, quick commerce, and online marketplaces expanded temporary workforce needs across sales, warehouse, and delivery roles.
• Logistics and last-mile delivery saw the steepest growth at 35-40%, propelled by increased online order volumes and faster fulfilment expectations.
• BFSI witnessed a significant rise in festive hiring, particularly for field sales, credit card and POS roles in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns, up by 30% year-on-year.
• Hospitality and travel rebounded sharply, with demand for front-office, event, and F&B staff up by 25%, buoyed by festive travel and early wedding season bookings (37%).
Metros such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai continued to lead in absolute hiring volumes, accounting for 75-80% of total deployments. However, Tier-2 and emerging cities registered a sharper upswing, with staffing demand rising by 21-25% year-on-year. Adecco data indicates that cities such as Lucknow, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, Nagpur, and Mysuru recorded growth of 21%, outpacing the 14% increase seen in metros.
Newer markets including Kanpur, Kochi, Vijayawada, and Varanasi also emerged as significant short-term employment hubs with 18-20% deployment, underscoring the geographic diversification of India’s flexible workforce. Compensations improved by 12-15% for entry level and 18-22% for those with experience. This year, gig and temp job market saw 15-20% inflow of fresh talent across 20+ Key markets including metros & Tier II cities.
Mr. Deepesh Gupta, Director and Head of General Staffing, Adecco India added, “India’s festive hiring this year reflects both economic confidence and the growing maturity of the gig economy. Hiring volumes and compensation payouts have surpassed the past three years, making 2025 the strongest year since the post-COVID normalization phase. Gig and temporary hiring grew by 25% over 2024, with female workforce participation rising by 30-35%, particularly across roles in retail, customer support, logistics, and financial services.”
The momentum is likely to sustain through the upcoming wedding season and into March 2026, driven by continued demand across hospitality, travel, logistics, and BFSI. Overall hiring volumes for Adecco during this extended period is expected to grow by 18-20% year-on-year, with Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities contributing nearly half of the incremental demand.