Festive Season Hiring Expected to Generate Up to 2.7 Lakh Gig Jobs in India

India’s festive season is expected to create around 2.5–2.7 lakh temporary and gig jobs in 2026, according to an Adecco India report. Hiring is expected to be driven primarily by e-commerce, logistics, quick commerce, organised retail and banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI).

Adecco India estimates that festive-season temporary and gig hiring could grow 15–20% year-on-year, building on approximately 2.16 lakh organised-sector jobs created during the previous festive season.

Hiring demand is expected to extend beyond major metropolitan areas. Around 45% of workforce demand is projected to come from Tier-II and Tier-III cities, including Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur and Coimbatore, as e-commerce penetration, organised retail and consumer spending expand in these markets.

Meanwhile, Tier-I cities such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad are facing a sharper talent crunch, with workforce mobility and growing interest in gig work making recruitment and retention more challenging.

Temporary wages are also expected to increase, with projected rises of 12–15% in metro markets and 8–10% in Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

Employers are increasingly looking for candidates with multilingual communication skills, digital proficiency and the ability to work in customer-facing and operational roles. Adaptability, digital literacy and communication skills are becoming increasingly important across consumer-facing industries.

However, talent shortages remain a major concern. About 80% of employers surveyed reported shortages in frontline and operational positions, while Adecco estimates a 10–15% demand-supply gap during the peak festive hiring period.

The report also projects that nearly 25% of seasonal workers could transition into longer-term assignments, suggesting that festive hiring may provide an important entry point into India's organised workforce.