IT flexi staffing is a $3.04 billion industry, says report

Indian IT flexi staffing industry was worth $3.04 billion in fiscal 2017, says the Indian IT Staffing Industry Landscape report. It's compiled by KPMG on behalf of the Indian Staffing Federation (ISF) and highlights the scale and status of the IT staffing industry in India.

According to the report, the flexi staffing market is expected to grow at 14-16 per cent per annum for the next five years. India is a significant contributor to APAC IT staffing industry, comprising 28 per cent of it. This means there is a huge opportunity for freelancers and consultants especially in the IT domain. The penetration rate of flexi workforce in IT with respect to the total IT workforce in India is just 5.6 per cent.

The study shows that the IT staffing industry is the highest contributor to flexi staffing in India. The IT industry is also at the juncture of massive transformation with influx of new technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud, analytics, Internet of Things, etc. The demand for niche skill sets for new technologies and meeting immediate business requirements are the two main factors that will boost the hiring of IT flexi staff.

On time delivery and upscaling are the other two reasons that will drive the growth of IT flexi staffing. "The pace at which IT sector is evolving, bench model of the industry where full time employees are kept on standby in expectation of new projects, is vanishing. Companies have fundamentally started opting for flexi staff to have flexibility and competitive edge over others," says Rituparna Chakraborty, President, Indian Staffing Federation.

Most of the IT flexi staff hiring will be from the sectors such as start-ups, e-commerce, BFSI, retail, IT and manufacturing. "Ecommerce and startups alone are expected to witness 17.3 per cent growth of IT flexi staff," says Chakraborty. States such as Karnataka, Maharashtra and Delhi (NCR) will stoke this demand. The IT flexi staffing market is the largest in the state of Karnataka ($1.05 billion) followed by Maharashtra ($0.48 billion).