Festive season to bring cheer for gig workers

Staffing and recruitment firms in the country expect the festive season to create a rebound in consumer confidence after the ebbing of the second Covid-19 wave, thereby leading to an uptick in the demand for the hiring of temporary workers by 20-35%. This demand by e-commerce, food-tech, logistics and retail companies is likely to be fuelled by an expected surge in demand driven by discounts and catchy offers.

According to some experts, if the nation is able to prevent the third COVID-19 wave, India may see more than 35% hiring of such last-mile workers. Alok Kumar, Senior Director at Manpower expects more than 3 lakh jobs to be created by these companies during the season of festivities, while Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder, TeamLease Services anticipates monthly salaries to rise from INR 18,000 to INR 20,000. The latter also expects a 40% yoy growth in festive sales in tier 3 & 4 cities.