The gig economy has arrived and is here to stay!
THE RISE OF GIG ECONOMY IN INDIA
“Flexibility is the key to stability.”
Having said this, the gig economy is one of the key players which drives towards a stable Indian economy.
In the present age of the fourth industrial revolution, the traditional form of employment is undergoing a massive change. Cliches like “uberisation of the workplace” are gaining currency. The gig economy also is known as the ‘sharing’ economy, ‘open talent’ economy, ‘freelance’ economy is the recent employment culture that is attaining maximum concern.
Characterized by the presence of short-term contracts as opposed to permanent jobs, the gig economy is currently evolving the real definition of ‘job.’ It undermines the traditional economy of full-time workers who rarely change their positions and instead rely on a lifetime career.
The gig economy enters the market with tons of benefits. Together with providing efficient services, the results of the gig economy are cheaper. Most of the time, employers cannot afford to hire full-time employees in order to get the work done. As a result, they land hiring part-time or temporary employees to take care of specific projects. Such an employment pattern helps employers to do away with various overhead costs such as infrastructure, payroll, training session and many more.
The gig economy provides the human workforce the scope of maintaining diversity in their work portfolio. Besides, the wide variety of options, helps young individuals particularly the undergraduates to gather work experience with companies before landing upon a conventional job.
Also, remote workers make a happier team. The greatest victory of virtual assistants that cannot be computed in monetary terms is a happier, less stressed and more motivated working place. 82 percent of remote freelance workers reported lower stress levels according to a study by PGI, a leading provider of software services.
The shift towards being self-employed can also be attributed to certain other factors such as uncertain economic climate, demand for more flexible working hours, cost savings for corporation and digitalization. A 2019 report by Noble House, a platform that connects business with skilled human resources found that 73 percent of its respondents wanted to opt for freelance work over a full-time job.
With such perks coming with the gig economy, India is slowly embracing the change. Today, 1 out of every freelancer globally is from India. A report by EY (formerly known as Ernst & Young), published together with Nasscom and Ficci, titled “Future of Jobs in India: A 2022 Perspective”, reveals that Indian freelancers hold a 24 percent share of the global online gig economy.
According to a report by McKinsey Global Institute, ‘Independent Work: Choice, Necessity and The Gig economy,’ 20 to 30 percent of the working-age population in developed countries is engaged in independent work. The PayPal study, ‘Insights into the Freelance ecosystem,’ states that the gig economy in India has the potential to grow up to $(20–30) billion by 2025. Also, India is the second-largest market of freelance professionals standing next only to the US as reported by ICRIER titled ‘Future of work in the Digital Era: Potential and Challenges for Online Freelancing and Microwork in India.’
Digitalization, internet savvy, technically skilled human resource, a booming startup culture are the major factors that are doubling the growth of the gig economy in India. Helma Kusuma, Freelancer.com Country Manager for Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh said, “India with the uprising gig economy has the capacity to become the top freelancing and crowdsourcing hub in Asia region.”
Developed under the iLabour project at Oxford University, The Online Labour Index (OLI) is the first economic indicator that provides data related to the gig economy equivalent to conventional labor market statistics. By tracking the number of online projects undertaken, it measures the demand and supply of freelancers. In July 2017, the index reported skills brought by different countries were writing and translation where the top occupational category in the US while software development and technology being in India.
Although the trend is increasing in popularity, the gig economy is not free from its own drawbacks. The flexibility of working gigs can disrupt the work-life balance, sleep pattern and activities of daily life. There prevails a never-ending hunt for the next gig.
There are also challenges with the reality of contingent workers as it lacks visibility and credibility. However, now companies are realizing that the gig economy affords companies access to pre-screened, trained workers who can get to work in no time.
The gig economy also claims the potential of revolutionizing the employment pattern in India. A data compiled by Mumbai based center for Monitoring Indian Economy stated that the unemployment rate rose from 5.9 percent in February 2018 to 7.2 percent in February 2019.
In such a grim scenario, the gig economy offers the direction of improving unemployment trends in India. With a huge young population ready to join the work culture each year, it is alarming that joblessness should impact people and the economy.
