More workers in India joining gig economy

A new report by NITI Aayog, ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy’, is the first attempt by a government policy think-tank to assess the current size of gig workers – those engaged in livelihoods outside the traditional employer-employee arrangement – and the employment generation of the sector. 

The study estimated that the number of gig workers increased from 6.8 million in 2019-20 (1.3% of the country’s workforce) to 7.7 million in 2020-21 (1.5% of the total workforce) and could rise to 23.5 million workers in 2029-30 when it will account for 4.1% of the total workforce.

Retail trade and sales account for the largest share of gig workers, about 2.7 million, followed next by 1.3 million in the transportation sector. “About 620,000 were in manufacturing and another 630,000 in the finance and insurance activities,” the report said.

The report classified about 31% of the 7.7 million jobs as low-skilled, 47% as medium-skilled and only 22% as high-skilled jobs. But it underlined that there was a trend where the concentration of workers in the medium skills was gradually declining and that of the low skilled and high skilled was increasing. 

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Suman Bery, Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog, said the report will help with understanding the potential of the sector and further drive research and analysis on gig and platform work, according to Hindustan Times.