India is set to be the third largest country in the world to employ 2.9 million flexi staff by 2018, the Indian Staffing Federation (ISF) said, adding that in 2015 alone, 15 sectors employed 1.81 million flexi staff.

Releasing a report at a global conference hosted jointly with the Labour Ministry here on Thursday, ISF, an apex body of the flexi staffing industry, said flexi staffing in the 11 States was estimated to grow at 12.8 per cent a year, with the highest growth expected in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Gujarat.

“With an acceleration rate of 12.3 per cent over 2015-18, flexi staffing is becoming the job creation engine where over nine million youth would be added to the organised workforce in the next 20 years,” said the report.

It said with every 1 per cent conversion of informal workers to flexi, there was need for a legal framework to protect the interest of this growing workforce.

Addressing the conference, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said the government was “committed to consider the problems of the workers as well as the employers in a tripartite spirit and create harmonious working environment to facilitate employment creation for India's large pool of unemployed workforce.”

Rituparna Chakraborty, President, ISF, pointed out that India was one of the few countries that had the advantage of a younger workforce, with every month a million youth entering the workforce.

Annemarie Muntz, President, Ciett, an international confederation of private employment services, pointed out structural challenges holding India back to fulfil its full potential in terms of talents and skills. “Over-complex regulation and bureaucracy need to be adjusted to the new era of employment,” she added.

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