TimesJobs announced the findings of its latest survey titled ‘Is gig economy the future of India’s workforce?’ to analyse the trends in the demand for freelancers. The survey reveals that Gen X (workforce born mid-1960s to the early 1980s) workers are preferred over the millennials for gig work. 1,600 HR professionals responded to the survey across various industry verticals.

A majority (45%) of HR professionals stated that more men are hired as freelancers as compared to women, as per the TimesJobs survey. As many as 36% of industry leaders say that around 20-30% of the contingent workforce is hired by the industry on an average in a year.

As per 48% of survey respondents Tier-1 cities have the highest demand for contractual workers, while Tier-3 cities have a low demand for temp staff. The survey findings also revealed that among the Tier-1 cities the demand is high in Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai, respectively.

Corporates prefer Gen X over millennials as freelancers

Majority (49%) of survey respondents have stated that corporates have the maximum demand for flexi-staff, whereas, 31% of survey respondents have said that the start-ups have the highest demand for the contingent workforce. The demand for mobile workforce was found to be insignificant in small and medium-size enterprises.
 

In the survey, 52% of hiring managers have stated that they would prefer recruiting Gen X over millennials as temp staff for their organisation, because of only 15% of respondents have said that they would prefer hiring Gen Z (mid-1990s to early-2000) for their contingent workforce.

Hiring managers rely most on recruitment agencies and consultancies for temp staff

The TimesJobs survey questioned the recruiters about the engagement model they follow for freelancers. Around 28% of respondents said that they treat their contingent the workforce at par with their permanent employees. As many as 27% of the respondents claimed that they involve them in strategic decision-making, followed by 23% of recruiters who engage their mobile workforce by giving feedbacks to them.

“Corporates are looking for agility from their workers and are willing to offer the flexibility required by the workforce. This is promoting the gig economy model in most industrial sectors. Here also the  Technology sector is creating most freelancing opportunities. The TimesJobs survey indicates that in the next 5 years, most freelancers will be hired for Blockchain architecture relates tasks (as stated by 22% respondents) and followed by social media/SEO related tasks as stated by 16% respondents,” said Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig.
 

Demand for flexi staff negligible in financial job roles; marketing skills most-in-demand

As per 30% of professionals the demand for flexi-staff is high for technical job roles, but negligible for financial job roles. Around 33% of industry experts also revealed that candidates with good marketing skills are the most hired followed by other skill sets like social media handling, web development and web designing.
 

The survey report also reveals that the IT sector is the largest employer of temp staff among various other sectors, whereas the demand for temp staff is negligible in Automobiles, BFSI and Infra industry.