Are you done with your festive shopping? If yes, chances are that the person who helped you in-store, or delivered your goods to your home was hired to meet the festive demand.
It is not just retailers or e-commerce and logistics firms, companies across sectors tend to hire workers ahead of the festive season. In this episode of the State of the Economy podcast, V Nivedita talks to Kartik Narayan, CEO - Staffing, TeamLease Services Ltd, to know some of this trend and factors like digitalisation, internet penetration and increased affordability that influence it.
Data shared by TeamLease shows that demand has increased this festive season. It said that consumer goods companies have placed orders with manufacturers that are 10 per cent higher than last year for this festive season. The data also says retailers anticipated a 10-12 per cent growth over last year’s sales during this festive season. This demand was driven by many factors including increased mobile penetration, access to online channels and government support.
TeamLease noted that businesses actively recruited temporary workers to cater to the demand and that this provided a boost to the local economies. It also noted that the number of gig workers are set to rise exponentially, from 77 lakh currently to 96 lakh by the end of the year. It also noted that this year’s festive hiring was anticipated to witness a 25 per cent increase in gig jobs compared to the same period last year. It noted that e-commerce, retail, logistics, BFSI, healthcare and education sectors will attract most of the gig workforce in this period. This surge in shopping activity is projected to generate almost 7 lakh gig jobs in the second half of 2023. More broadly, the staffing company estimated that the number of gig workers could reach 2.35 crores by 2030.
TeamLease also noted that the demand for gig workers during the season has risen not only in Tier-I cities, but also in Tier-II and Tier-III cities like Vadodara, Pune, and Coimbatore.
However, it noted that not all gig workers would benefit from increased salaries -- the lower income segment could see a moderate salary increase, while other segments of gig workers could see an increase of around 20-25 per cent in salaries.
(Host and procuder: V Nivedita)
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About the State of the Economy podcast
India’s economy has been hailed as a bright spot amid the general gloom that seems to have enveloped the rest of the world. But several sectors continue to stutter even as others seem set to fire on all cylinders. To help you make sense of the bundle of contradictions that the country is, businessline brings you podcasts with experts ranging from finance and marketing to technology and start-ups.