Economic Survey 2024: A day before the Union Budget 2024 is scheduled to be tabled, the government released the report on the state of the economy. The Economic Survey 2024 stated that the gig workforce is expected to expand to 2.35 crore by 2029-30.
The survey stated that gig workers are expected to form 6.7 per cent of the non-agricultural workforce or 4.1 per cent of the total livelihood by 2029-30. According to NITI Aayog’s national labour force survey data in 2020-21, 77 lakh workers were engaged in the gig economy, constituting 2.6 per cent of the non-agricultural workforce or 1.5 per cent of the total workforce in India.
“While the gig economy may open up employment opportunities for various sections of workers, including youth, persons with disabilities, and women, a significant issue in the Indian context and globally has been the creation of effective social security initiatives for gig and platform workers,” the survey highlighted. The Code on Social Security (2020) expands the scope of social security benefits to encompass gig and platform workers, it said.
Gig workers comprise freelancers, online platform workers, self-employed, on-call workers, and creative tech talent.
The rise of the gig economy globally was the result of a marked shift in the employment scenario. The emergence of the gig economy in India was driven by the emergence of tech-enabled platforms, an increase in access to the internet backed by the development of digital public infrastructure, the demand for flexible work arrangements, and the focus on skills, it said.
“Research studies have shown that participation in the gig economy is higher in developing countries (between five and 12 per cent) compared to developed economies (between one and four per cent), and most of these jobs are in lower-income job types, such as deliveries, ridesharing, microtasks, care and wellness,” stated the report quoting a BCG report from 2021.
As per National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), the high demand for gig works and services are boosting entry-level job creation in Tier 2 and 3 cities, including “part-time work for students entering the job market or as a shock absorber in case of temporary unemployment, with a high probability of workers moving to better-paying jobs after the platform experience”.