What Gig Workers Should Expect in 2023?

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One of the newest employment trends that have gathered several eyeballs in recent times including the Niti Aayog, a think tank of India, is the concept of gig working. As per the Niti Aayog report, ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy’, the Indian gig workforce is expected to expand to 23.5 million workers by the year 2029-30, which is nearly a 200% jump from the current 7.7 million. The report also states that gig working is about to expand to all sectors, where 47% of the jobs are medium-skilled, 22% are high-skilled and around 31% are low-skilled. Taskmo: A gig discovery platform witnessed a 7X surge in demand for white-collar gig workers for the roles of administrative assistants, industry experts for e-commerce companies, technical skills workers, analytics, and data scientists.

Overall, the demand for gig workers has increased by 10X whereas the participation of gig workers has increased by 3X in the year 2022 in comparison to the year 2021, according to the Taskmo report 2022. Women's participation has increased from 18% to 36% showing a remarkable growth of 2X last year whereas Youth participation in the Gig economy has seen an 8-fold increase between 2019-2022.

While digital transformation spurred by the global pandemic is constantly rewriting the marketing scenario, Indian companies are increasingly on the lookout for gig partners to fulfill roles in business development, field sales, last-mile delivery, digital promotion, brand promotion, and micro-influencers. Gig workers are no longer young people looking for seasonal jobs: they're professionals that have had to create new ways of living and working as they can't find jobs with long-lasting hiring commitments. Gig workers are self-employed individuals who do not have an employer and do jobs independently or through third parties.

Commenting on the growing demand for gig jobs, Prashant Janadri, Co-Founder, Taskmo Said, “Gig is the newest trend in the employment market and today we see its expansion across every industry in the country. Over the last two years, rapid tech advancements followed by the introduction of flexible work models have created an evolution of the gig economy at large. Now we see every other company promoting the gigification of traditional job roles. Furthermore, we have seen that emerging segments in gig are largely dominated by Millennials and Gen Z today.”

Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities have noted improved demand for gigs given that companies are expanding their geographical footprint beyond metros by setting up secondary offices in smaller towns.

Recruiters are also going the extra mile to attract workers from smaller cities through a tech-driven approach, providing multi-language support, job tracking and monitoring solutions, as well as ease of payments. Moreover, location is no longer a deal breaker as many jobs today can be done remotely.

Whether this is a positive transformation or the need of the hour, the gig economy is constantly rewriting the hiring and working scenario all over the world, Indian companies are increasingly on the lookout for gig workers to fulfill roles in business development, field sales, last-mile delivery, digital promotion, brand promotion, and micro-influencers.

During this growing gig economy times, in 2023 gig workers should expect:

More opportunities

Year 2023 is all set to make new records in the history of the gig economy. Seeing the continuous growth from the demand end, a 15X increase in the demand of gig workers is expected in the first two quarters itself. After COVID pandemic situation, workers are prioritising mental health, family and work flexibility while earning good and that will create a healthy demand and supply situation in the economy. E-commerce, mobility, IT, and marketing sectors will continue to create the highest demand whereas Business development executives, field sales executives, micro influencers.Telecallers, etc roles will be in top demand.

Heath and financial benefits

Gig economy is now a well known form of work culture in every sector, from generating leads to executing successful marketing campaigns all over India Gig workers are the most cost-efficient form of getting the work done. The year 2023 will be the most crucial year in the reference of building a healthy work environment for gig workers. From providing health benefits to providing all the basic work benefits, gig discovery platforms as well as the government are all ready to prioritise the mental as well as physical health of gig workers by providing various social and financial securities.

Upskilling

A gig economy is a place where the more skills you have the more you earn, your total earnings are directly proportional to the number of skills you have and how up-to-date you are according to the market demand. The gig economy is considered to be the most fragile market where the demand for skills keeps changing according to the session and market trends so continued upskilling will play an important role in how much you can earn. Majorly the Platforms like Taskmo will keep dominating the industry as they provide an opportunity to upskill according to the market demand.