Amid the ongoing festival season in the country, the hiring of gig workers has zoomed across sectors. Businesses have begun opening up, leading to an uptick in consumer sentiments and rising pent-up demand, according to experts. 

“In the third quarter, with the onset of festive season, we are witnessing a 400 per cent spike in the hiring for gig workers. Earlier, in the first quarter of this year, as many businesses and companies were not operating at full strength, growth was muted. However, things began picking up and became more promising from the second quarter as the demand for gig workers across sectors grew,” Prashant Janadri, a co-founder of Taskmo, a subsidiary of Quess Corp, told the PTI today. 

Given the impact of the pandemic, companies preferred quick hiring processes. Therefore, gig workers and short-term workers were in high demand, he added. 

Mr Janadri said that demand for gig workers was being witnessed, especially in sectors, such as edtech, fintech, mobility, e-commerce, foodtech and retail across roles. 

Roles such as business development, sales, marketing, on-boarding, auditing, retail and warehouse operations were mostly in demand, he added. 

“As companies are opening up after the COVID-19-induced lockdowns, we are witnessing increased demand in customer support, tele-sales, on-boarding partners, auditing, packing, customer service, loader-unloader, samplers and merchandisers roles,” he said, adding that demand for blue-collar gig workers was more as compared to the white-collar workforce. 

The salary for gig workers was 1.25-1.5 times higher as compared to that in the first and second quarters, Mr Janadri said. 

Echoing a similar view, FirstMeridian Business Services Group CEO Sudhakar Balakrishnan said pent-up demand, rising consumer purchasing and e-commerce were expected to generate up to 1 lakh jobs this festive period. 

The Indian job market was on the road to recovery as most of the companies were intending to hire in this quarter, which was expected to be the highest over a period of 1.5 years, he stated.

“Looking at the current trends, hiring in the e-commerce sector is expected to increase by 50 per cent, e-pharma and logistics will increase by 30-40 per cent and food delivery will increase by over 50 per cent,” he noted.