Diwakar, 20, a school drop-out, who was unemployed till a week ago, is now busy criss-crossing Chennai streets delivering packages ordered by customers online, having been recruited as a temp or flexi staff for the Diwali season by an e-tailer.

There has been a huge demand for such temporary workers by e-commerce giants such as Amazon.in and Flipkart for the festival season.

In the run-up to its Big Billion Days sale, Flipkart had hired over 20,000 temp staff to ramp up its delivery and logistics service to meet the demand. This was double the number of temp staff compared with last year, said a company official.

Amazon.in has created over 22,000 seasonal positions across its network of fulfilment centres, sorting centres, delivery stations and customer service sites this festival season in various cities, said an official.

In January, Amazon.in had hired over 7,500 seasonal associates across it fulfilment network and customer service sites, he said, without giving the duration for which they were hired.

The additional labour requirement started from Rakshabandhan in August and will go right up to Christmas in December, said Amitabh Jaipuria, President and CEO, Global Services, Quess Corp, which provides staffing services and solutions.

There has been a clear rise in labour intake in e-commerce, logistics and retail for the festival season.

Suchita Dutta, Executive Director, Indian Staffing Federation, said that with focus on the festival season, the e-commerce industry will need more people in delivery and procurement, and will be one of the key drivers of flexi-staffing.

E-commerce and retail sectors are expected to hire around 75,000 people this season. There will be 12-15 per cent increase in flexi-staffing this year as customer base has grown over last year, she said.

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