Market watchers say sector will be a big jobs driver with boost in infrastructure development, policies and tech; monthly salaries likely up to Rs 30,000-plus in peak season

Market watchers say sector will be a big jobs driver with boost in infrastructure development, policies and tech; monthly salaries likely up to Rs 30,000-plus in peak season Companies in the logistics space are on a hiring spree this year, driven in large part due to fresh rounds of funding and plans for expansion in new cities. Recruitment companies such as quess and peoplestrong said there would be an almost 20-25% uptick in jobs in sorting and packing centres and in middle and lastmile delivery. Other in-demand work profiles would include fleet and warehouse managers, loading supervisors, and seafarers.

According to a TeamLease report, overall employment in logistics would grow from nearly 11 million in 2018 to almost 14 million in 2022, with the warehousing segment alone expected to create 1,20,000 new jobs. Experts said with the improvement in infrastructural development, a boost in governmental policies and the advancement of technology, the logistics sector is set to become one of the biggest drivers for job growth this year, with salaries of ₹15,000-18,000 a month plus variables in offseason, going up to ₹25,000-30,000 in peak season. “This sector has been largely unorganised thus far, but 2020 is expected to bring in more consolidation as well as expansion in tier 2 and 3 cities, in turn leading to increased hiring,” said Quess – India region chief operating officer Guruprasad Srinivasan. The recruitment company currently has about 10,000 people deployed in logistics startups and expects a 15% increase in mandates this year with a majority of the job roles in sorting and packing centres and middle and last-mile deliveries, he said.

Estimates from PeopleStrong show that in logistics outsourcing — mainly driven by ecommerce companies — one million new jobs would be generated. This year, there will be more hiring in the technology, analytics, and artificial intelligence domains as opposed to hiring in frontline operations over the last year, said Devashish Sharma, the chief business officer of Taggd, PeopleStrong’s recruitment solutions business. Last month, Walmart-owned Flipkart led a $60-million investment round in last-mile logistics startup Shadowfax. The company is looking to expand its operations, strategy and growth teams, as it pushes an expansion into more cities pan-India and China. “We are looking at ecommerce and product companies to hire people in middle and senior management roles,” said Tanushree Ray, the head of HR at Shadowfax. The company is looking to hire at least 150 people for corporate roles, and is expecting twofold growth on driver-partner side, Ray told ET. Shiprocket, a tech-enabled logistics aggregator platform for direct-to-consumer ecommerce sellers, will be hiring 100 people, half for its technology and data teams and the other half for business operations, while Robinsons Global Logistics Solutions will be increasing its headcount by 15%. “We will be hiring in junior and middle positions, as well as 2-3 key leadership hires. We will also be exploring technology hiring outside India,” Robinsons chief executive Aditya Vazirani said. Logistics and logistics ecommerce companies accounted for 3% of the total investment deals in India for 2019, with a total estimated deal size of more than $335 million, according to estimates from specialist staffing company Xpheno. “Many of the logistics companies have seen growth in Series-C and above stages,” Xpheno co-founder Kamal Karanth said.