The Hot New Gig Economy

EVERY TIME YOU BUY A PRODUCT ON AMAZON, WORK IS INSTANTLY PARCELLED OUT TO A CHAIN OF SUPPLIERS – FROM THE RETAIL STORE STOCKING THAT PRODUCT TO THE COURIER DELIVERING IT

- Minhaz Merchant

EVEN AS INDIAN economists fret over job numbers, they are missing the wood for the trees. Employment data from the NSSO or the CMIE does not capture the hottest trend in jobs: the gig economy.

Worldwide more and more millennials are opting for project-based work – gigs that give them freedom, space, and challenges. With robots and artificial intelligence shrinking traditional industrial jobs, the trend towards assignment based work is growing.

In India, jobs data captures less than 50 percent – by some estimates of less than 80 percent – of all jobs. Most jobs tracked are in the formal economy but it’s in the informal economy where many new economy jobs are being created. The next time Swiggy delivers your dinner at home or you ride an Uber cab to office, you are supporting the informal economy. Mall workers, healthcare startups, interior designers, web coders, and food caterers form a layer of gig jobbers who make India’s informal economy far larger than is generally believed.

The numbers aren’t small. According to a report in Mint: “Delhi has emerged as the top destination for migrant workers joining India’s tech-enabled gig economy, pushing startup capital Bengaluru to a distant second spot. The capital city added 5,60,600 people to its sharing economy in the six months ended 31 March, an 88 percent jump from the 2,98,000 it attracted in the first half of the last fiscal, data from human resource firm TeamLease Services shows.”