Bengaluru|Kolkata: India’s festive temp hiring surge is no longer a metro story. As e-commerce, quick-commerce and organised retail push deeper into smaller markets, tier II and toer III cities are emerging as a faster-growing engine of seasonal hiring.The base may be smaller, but the growth is faster. Temp hiring demand in these markets is growing at roughly twice the rate of metros, according to estimates from some staffing firms.
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The action is spread across Jaipur, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Surat, Kochi and Chandigarh, among others. These cities are attracting more festive temp jobs as companies add stores, warehouses and last-mile capacity closer to consumers. The result: smaller cities are taking a bigger slice of the seasonal staffing pie than what they did a few years ago.
“Festive hiring is increasingly moving beyond the large metros with Tier II and tier III markets emerging as significant employment hubs,” said Nitin Dave, CEO, Quess Staffing Solutions. He estimates temporary and flexi hiring demand across these markets this season to grow by 20-25% year-on-year, compared with 8-10% in metros — roughly 2-2.5 times the pace. The shift is visible in the business mix too. Quess says the share of Tier 2/3 markets in festival flexi hiring has risen from 42% in 2022 to an estimated 53% in 2026, while the share of metros has shrunk from 58% to around 47%. At GI Group Holding, they account for nearly 40-45% of festive temp business, up from roughly 25% two years ago.
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“This festive season, temporary staffing demand from tier II and III is growing 22-25% year-on-year, compared to 14-16% in metros,” said Vijay Vasanth, senior vice-president, GI Group Holding. “Employers are no longer treating these markets as backup capacity. They are core to festive fulfilment planning.” For companies, the logic is straightforward. Consumption is growing outside the biggest cities, and fulfilment networks are following it. Ecommerce, quick-commerce, logistics and organised retail are driving much of the hiring, with demand concentrated in delivery, warehouse and fulfilment, retail sales, customer support, field sales and merchandising. BFSI and telecom are also adding frontline roles.
TeamLease Services expects festive temporary staffing demand to rise 20-25% in tier II/III markets, against 15-20% in tier 1.
Balasubramanian A, senior vice-president of TeamLease said the higher growth reflects both a base effect and the expanding footprint of e-commerce, quick commerce, retail and logistics companies. Retail expansion is adding another layer. Haier India CEO Satish NS said the company plans to increase manpower in tier II and IIIer 2 and 3 cities by 15% over last year, helped by large retail chains entering these markets and buoyant demand.
Reliance Digital, Croma and southern electronic retail chains are together opening 89 new stores this month, mostly in smaller markets, and similar numbers are planned for next month too, he said.
