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Gig workforce witness 5X demand growth after mass layoffs: Report
- Due to its short-term contracts or temporary labour with flexibility and freedom of workculture but no job security, India's gig economy is the sector of the workforce that is expanding at the fastest rate.
Due to its short-term contracts or temporary labour with flexibility and freedom of workculture but no job security, India's gig economy is the sector of the workforce that is expanding at the fastest rate. Due to the agility, skill set, and lower cost of freelancers, organizations in today's digital age are altering their business models to draw in an increasing number of them. The Taskmo Gig Index (TGI) demonstrates that the post-layoff employment market is seeing tremendous growth in hiring demand for the Indian gig economy.
According to a Taskmo study, the platform's user base grew by 21% last month, while demand from recruiters saw a 5X spike in January 2023. While metro cities continue to retain the growing momentum for gig workers, it is encouraging to observe that prominent recruiters have established their roots throughout Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities like Indore, Bhopal, Ranchi, Lucknow, and Vadodara, which are picking up their route to gig jobs. Since that companies are extending their geographic reach outside metro areas by establishing additional offices in smaller towns, Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities have noticed an uptick in the demand for gigs. Using a tech-driven strategy, recruiters are going above and beyond to entice applicants from smaller cities, offering multilingual assistance, job tracking and monitoring tools, as well as payment simplicity. Furthermore, since many occupations may now be performed remotely, location is no longer a deciding factor.
The majority of gig workers are professionals who have had to develop new routines and methods of working since they are unable to secure jobs with long-term hiring commitments. They are no longer young individuals searching for seasonal labour. Gig workers are self-employed individuals who do not have an employer and do jobs independently or through third parties. The main benefit for companies hiring these workers is that it costs less than hiring permanent employees due to lower salaries, taxes, benefits, etc, the study report of Taskmo says.
Indian companies are rapidly searching for gig partners to cover responsibilities in tech gigs, content moderators, business development, telecallers, brand promotion, and micro-influencers as the digital upheaval sparked by the global pandemic continuously overhauls the marketing landscape. Another segment of laid-off employees decided to try their success in the gig economy, a new employment trend that has emerged as a result of the failure of start-ups. Almost 15 million gig workers are employed in India, and the gig economy is expanding quickly to meet the demands of millennials, Gen Z, and Y employees.
“As India moves toward becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2025, the gig economy serves as a building block that helps the economy achieve the final goal of eradicating the gap between unemployment and income. Freelancers, cleaners, delivery executives, bloggers, consultants, etc are a part of the gig economy. In recent times, most gig jobs are platform enabled, which also gives gig workers the flexibility to work for more than one contractor,” Taskmo study report says.
The rapidly growing gig economy has made significant progress and given the Indian economy advantages in terms of productivity and employment. Most gig tech platforms have seen a rise in demand for gig workers throughout Quick commerce, Healthtech, Fintech, and E-commerce sectors amid concerns over startup layoffs, funding shortages, and shutdowns.
As per a report by NITI Aayog titled 'India's Booming Gig and Platform Economy' for 2020–21, in 2020- 21, 77 lakh (7.7 million) workers were engaged in the gig economy and gig workforce is expected to expand to 2.35 crore (23.5 million) workers by 2029-30.
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First Published:25 Feb 2023, 10:20 PM IST
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