Demand for contract workers up 66% as e-commerce firms prepare for festive season

Mumbai: Ahead of the festive season, the demand for contract workers has witnessed a 66 per cent sequential growth during June mainly led by e-commerce companies, according to a report.

Over 66 per cent rise in gig work was witnessed during the month of June compared to May, according to Taskmo, a Quess Corp-backed on-demand Gig Tech platform.

As many as five lakh gig tasks were offered during June compared to 3 lakh gig work in May this year as fintech and e-commerce companies started preparations for the upcoming festive season.

"Typically, June is a period when merchandising companies gear up for the festive season demand. However, since this year, the market has rebounded from two years of Covid-19 setbacks. With that, we observed a tremendous seasonal hiring demand across the industry.

"Specifically, around festive sales season, plenty of direct and indirect gig job opportunities are coming from multiple e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart and Amazon, which are the top recruiters in the months," Taskmo co-founder Prashant Janadri said.

The Taskmo Gig Index (TGI) is an extensive and wide-ranging analysis of gig job posting activity conducted by Taskmo.

Based on a real-time review of the demand and supply for gig work across India, the Index report details various trends in the gig jobs across sectors and occupation.

The report further revealed that the pandemic led consumer buying behaviour has built significant growth in platform usage and digital payments.

In the past two years, these trends have been adding to the sprouting demand for gig workers in fintech and e-commerce industries, which continue to gain momentum amid the festive season, it noted.

Following the growth of the e-commerce sector, job profiles such as last-mile delivery executives hiring increased by 12 per cent, followed by a 10 per cent growth for the tele-callers role in June.

In addition, the report observed a positive month-on-month hiring trend for the gig job roles such as business development executives (9 per cent), digital and brand promoters (6 per cent), field sales executives and micro influencers (4 per cent).

The overall gig hiring boosted in tier II cities (up 11 per cent) and in the tier III market (up 13 per cent) as prominent recruiters strengthened their presence in these markets, promoting a trend of hyper-local recruitment.

Amongst all the monitored cities, Mysore outpaced tier I cities, with a 23 per cent rise in gig hiring demand, followed by Bengaluru (up 16 per cent), Kanpur (up 14 per cent), Lucknow (up 13.3 per cent), Bhopal (up 13.3 per cent), Coimbatore (up 12.7 per cent), Shivamogga (up 12.7 per cent), and Delhi (up 12 per cent), the report stated.

While the overall hiring has declined in the tier I market by 12 per cent compared to May, the city-specific figure showcases moderate hiring activity in markets such as Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai (up 8.3 per cent), Mumbai (up 2.5 per cent), Hyderabad (up 2.6 per cent), it added.