 "Gig worker")
Diwali has come early for gig workers. Kumar, who does not want to give out his real name, has been making food deliveries for Swiggy in Delhi for the last three years. Of late, his income has jumped, as he has begun to work for Shadowfax, the logistics firm, and Rapido, the ride-hailing outfit, in addition to Swiggy. “Companies have started to offer better incentives ahead of the festival season. There has also been an increase in the number of orders I deliver,” says Kumar.
Incentives for gig workers, amid muted hiring for permanent employees, have surged, often adding up to four or five times their regular earnings. Not surprisingly, gig jobs are exploding: Staffing firm TeamLease Services says this festival season – roughly from Onam to Diwali – is expected to breach the 700,000 mark in creation of new gig jobs. That is 75 per cent more than the 400,000 in last year’s festival season.
Gig work, in fact, gets the lion’s share of the 800,000 new jobs to be generated across temporary, gig, and part-time positions. Of this, 22.7 per cent have already been created.
“This growth can be attributed to several factors, including the introduction of the new logistics policy and the rise of various formats of ecommerce and quick-service delivery models,” says Dhriti Prasanna Mahanta, Vice President, TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship.
Ecommerce bigwig Flipkart said it would generate more than 100,000 new jobs during the period across its supply chain, including fulfilment and sortation centres, and delivery hubs. The Walmart-owned firm is gearing up for the 10th edition of its annual flagship sale event, The Big Billion Day, slated for the end of this month.
The incentives provided for electric vehicle purchases have motivated delivery agencies to expand their service network and get more manpower. Apna.co, a jobs and professional networking unicorn — a unicorn is a privately-held company valued at more than $1 billion — has witnessed a substantial 15 per cent spike in the demand for gig workers, especially in the logistics and warehousing sectors.
The demand for delivery personnel on the platform has increased by 40 per cent over the same period last year.
The biggest beneficiaries of the surge are expected to be those who make last-mile deliveries.
For instance, the demand in the logistics sector is expected to increase from 150,000 to 275,000 gig workers. Of these, a quarter are expected to be last-mile delivery gig workers, and another 10 per cent will be inter-state logistics gig workers, says TeamLease data.
Companies operating in the third-party logistics space are already bracing for this uptick in demand.
Ecom Express, for instance, expects a 50 per cent surge in its gig workforce during this festival season compared to last year’s. It has 120,000 registered users on its platform enrolled as delivery partners.
"We plan to onboard approximately 40,000 additional workers, mostly on contractual basis, to support the season period,” says Prashant Khullar, Chief Human Resource Officer, Ecom Express.
iThink Logistics expects a 30-40 per cent increase in the demand for gig work.
“Last year, the gig economy in logistics was still considered an ‘extra help,’ mostly called in for the peak moments. This year, the dynamics have changed dramatically. It is not just about handling excess demand anymore; it is about efficiently scaling up operations and meeting customer expectations for quicker deliveries and better service,” says Zaiba Sarang, co-founder, iThink.
The burgeoning blue-collar hiring comes amid waning demand for skilled full-time employment. Data from job portal Naukri.com shows a 6 per cent dip in white-collar hiring this August compared to last year, due to cautious sentiment in information technology, insurance, automotive, healthcare and business process outsourcing.
Industry stakeholders say the surge in demand for gig workers in logistics is not a one-off, that it reflects a broader trend.
“Outstanding performance within the gig economy now serves as a potential gateway to more stable employment,” says Mahanta.
