Amazon India has created more than 1.6 lakh seasonal work opportunities across its operations network ahead of the festive season, the company said, spanning roles in logistics, warehousing, packaging and deliveries across about 400 cities.
The hiring covers fulfilment centres, sort centres and the last-mile delivery network. It is timed to the demand surge that builds through the festive calendar, which this year started early with August sales around Independence Day and Raksha Bandhan and runs through Diwali into the winter wedding season.
Abhinav Singh, Vice President of Operations for Amazon India, APAC, the Middle East, Africa and Turkiye, said the expanded workforce would help the company handle the peak. “This expanded workforce will help us strengthen our fulfilment and logistics capabilities and ensure we can handle the festive season,” he said. “Many of these associates continue their journey with Amazon beyond the festive period, while several others return year after year to work with us.“
A significant share of the new opportunities sits in non-metro cities, part of a broader shift in where seasonal work is landing. On jobs platform Apna, chief executive Kartik Narayan said Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities now account for close to 55% of gig roles, up from about 39% two years ago, pointing to a more geographically distributed hiring pattern.
Amazon is not alone in scaling up. E-commerce platform Meesho said it expects to enable over 10 lakh seasonal opportunities this year, including roughly 6.5 lakh across its seller network and about 3.75 lakh in logistics. The two announcements together signal how large the festive labour build-up has become.
The wider market backs that up. Staffing firms expect festive hiring in India to grow 15-20% in 2026, generating an estimated 2 to 2.5 lakh seasonal and gig roles across e-commerce, quick commerce, retail, logistics and allied sectors, according to reports from TeamLease, NLB Services and CIEL HR. Warehouse pickers, packers, dark-store staff, delivery riders and in-store roles are seeing the strongest demand.
One shift staffing firms have flagged is timing. Employers are moving away from last-minute, volume-led recruitment toward structured planning that begins 12 to 14 weeks before the festive peak. For frontline workers, that can mean earlier onboarding and, in some cases, a longer runway of work.
