BENGALURU: Emerging cities like Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Vishakhapatnam, Surat, Kochi, and Nagpur are seeing a growing demand for flexi staffing in the IT industry.
This is driven by factors such as a skilled workforce, strategic location, and strong manufacturing bases.
Indian Staffing Federation (ISF) on Thursday released the Indian IT Staffing- Sectoral and State Employment Trends Report 2024, and Lohit Bhatia, President of ISF, said Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi NCR are the five states that dominate the IT flexi staffing industry in the country.
These states have a combined market value of USD 2.8 billion, which is 57 per cent of the total market value.
He told journalists that with a market value of USD 1.4 billion, Karnataka alone has the largest IT flexi market size in the country. While the global IT flexi staffing market size is $114.7 billion in FY24, the Indian market size is about USD 4.9 billion (Rs 40,584 crore) and has a workforce of 5,97,000.
Interestingly, IT/ITeS and GCCs (global capability centres) account for 51 per cent of the market value and they also have the highest combined IT flexi staffing workforce of 2,96,000.
When asked about the percentage of flexi staffing in the IT industry, Bhatia said it is 5.5 per cent in IT and ITeS, whereas, GCCs exhibit a slightly higher penetration rate at 8.2 per cent.
"This is primarily due to the fast pace with which GCCs are being set up in India," he said.
Apart from these two sectors, the BFSI & fintech sector has the highest penetration with 17.1 per cent, driven by rising demands for cybersecurity and cloud adoption. The president of ISF also said that companies prefer flexi staffing for niche skills, apart from project-based requirements.
The report highlights that the IT flexi staffing workforce provides higher project cost efficiency of 20-30 per cent and that project-based focus and motivation drive higher output. Also, the majority of companies are engaging IT flexi staffing workforce for 1-2 years projects.
Talking about the age group of these employees, he said, "Professionals with 5-10 years experience are in maximum demand."
People in the 25-30 years age bracket are hired the most in IT and GCCs, and IT flexi staffing has the highest women workforce participation at 35 per cent in FY24. Of all cities, Delhi/NCR has the highest women workforce participation rate at 45 per cent.
Established tech hubs like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi NCR remain at the forefront of IT flexi-staffing demand.