NEW DELHI: As the Covid-19 pandemic squeezed budgets, companies increasingly started hiring temporary staffers. Businesses slowed down, leading to a massive jump in hiring in the gig workspace. Experts suggest the trend is catching on and hiring will continue in the space. In fact, a report by BetterPlace, a blue-collar lifecycle management firm, suggests the gig workforce in 2021 is likely to increase to 175% by 2020.
The gig economy can serve up to 90 million jobs over the long term, says the report. It adds that 7 million blue-collar jobs are likely to be created in 2021 and the delivery segment is expected to be the key driver. Yeshab Giri, Director Staffing, Randstad India, say, 2020 saw gig hiring primarily in healthcare & pharma, BFSI and e-commerce, and companies started hiring around 15,000-30,000 employees across levels of experience.
This year the demand is likely to shoot up to 35-40% with sectors like IT, hospitality, FMCG, telecom and retail hiring showing a positive trend. “We anticipate the hiring momentum in the July-September quarter to rise to an all-time high with around 65,000 to 80,000 new temporary staff being recruited, especially in food delivery, logistics, manufacturing and MSMEs,” says Giri.
Teamlease also expects to add 1 million jobs in the gig space. The firm said in the logistics sector, the demand for warehouse roles (delivery executives, movers, pickers, packers, loaders etc.) has increased by 20% to 25% as compared to last year July to December and is expected to increase further.Q4FY21 ending showed a massive recovery, crossing 1.03 million flexi staff deployed across industries through members of Indian Staffing Federation (ISF).