Gig demand swells, but workers are hard to find

The summer heat is scorching staffing firms, especially those providing temporary or gig workers to various industries, as demand for workers rises but the cost of meeting the demand also rises in parallel.

- Devina Sengupta & Suneera Tandon

MUMBAI:

Demand for gig workers from companies in consumer, banking and logistics sectors has risen 15-20% in tier II and III cities, but staffing firms said they are hobbled by a rise in cost of relocation of workers from different states, as well as high attrition—sometimes a temp worker may last barely a month, necessitating the added cost of a replacement.

"There is a 20% increase in costs in a year's time along with an attrition of at least 25%," said Sunil Chemmankotil, country manager of staffing firm Adecco India. "This means when we get a workforce from other states in northeast or central India to one of the southern states, the workforce stays for a few months (only). We then have to get replacements, which leads to more costs since we cannot bill the client again."