Service sector embracing gig economy in India

Recent data from job site Indeed suggests the Indian labour market is experiencing a shift towards a gig economy, with an increasing number of workers seeking contractual or freelancing opportunities. With recruiters too rethinking their remote work programmes, 7.7 per cent of all companies posting on the Indeed platform in India offer flexible work opportunities. In addition, 2.8 per cent of all job postings on the site from India are for part-time or contractual roles.

The leading sector in terms of job flexibility, as data from Indeed indicates, is services, with the role of examiner offering flexible work arrangements in 75.2 per cent of all job postings. Further, data collected by Indeed from January 2013 onwards till October 2017 seems to indicate a seasonal trend in contractual hiring in the sector, where jobs of this nature increase towards the close of the year and remain relatively low at other times. It has been observed that the percentage of part-time job opportunities rises from an average five per cent to 10 per cent to a yearly high of 20-25 per cent between the months of November and February.

Other sectors that constitute the top 10 in terms of job flexibility include media, real estate, legal, hospitality, tech help, management, medicine allied and education. A job role that sees a large number of openings, that of data entry clerk, is also seeing part-time opportunities making up 16.9 per cent of all job postings on the site.

Sashi Kumar, managing director, Indeed India, said, “Employees are increasingly willing to sacrifice the additional benefits that come with a permanent job, such as gratuity or health insurance, in exchange for a greater amount of flexibility that allows them a healthy work-life balance, and the opportunity to simultaneously pursue multiple interests. Indeed data demonstrates an increasing demand for flexible work arrangements, especially in larger cities, where a daily commute might be time consuming.”