Job market: A ray of hope from the gig economy amidst layoffs

Three days ago, Microsoft announced plans to cut thousands of jobs, even eliminating some roles in human resources and engineering divisions, according to media reports.

After Twitter, Meta, Google, and other tech companies, Adobe laid off close to 100 employees to cut costs in December. The year started with a public staff note from Chief Executive Andy Jassy of Amazon.com about increasing layoffs to over 18,000 roles as part of its workforce reduction plans.

Read more: Workforce: Trickledown effect from big tech to small as layoffs spread

In addition, Salesforce plans to cut jobs by 10%, closing some offices, after rapid pandemic hiring caused a bloated workforce amid an economic slowdown.

In such a scenario, in emerging markets like India, the gig economy still has ample room for unprecedented growth as it gains more social acceptance. It’s generating regular income for those who want to go their own way when it comes to employment.

We are effectively bridging the skill-earnings gap by maintaining a steady pool of certified workforce which assists clients in breaking down their complex operational needs to repeatable tasks or gigs, allowing them to blitz-scale their business as per their requirements

Kajal Malik, Chief Sales Officer, PickMyWork

With the primary goal of leveraging the opportunities presented by the rise of the gig economy in India, PickMyWork is expanding its marketplace aiming to reach 20 lakh users in the next calendar year.

Furthermore, with thousands of gig workers relying solely on PickMyWork for income, the platform intends to facilitate income worth INR 25 crore to 15 lakh gig workers in the upcoming fiscal.

“In the years ahead, our strategy is to support the gig workforce economy and generate jobs for thousands and thousands of independent professionals. Since the future of workspace is digital, fueled by gig workers who prefer to work remotely on flexible projects, we are motivated to empower our workers with the appropriate tools and training on a regular basis. Moreover, we are pleased by the comprehensiveness of our offering and the diversity of clients served on our platform, and we will continue to deploy new talent to expand aggressively in new markets,” said Vidyarthi Baddireddy, CEO, PickMyWork.

“We are effectively bridging the skill-earnings gap by maintaining a steady pool of certified workforce which assists clients in breaking down their complex operational needs to repeatable tasks or gigs, allowing them to blitz-scale their business as per their requirements. We have already established a presence in major Indian markets and following our current growth rate, we will cover the entire country in the next five years,” said Kajal Malik, Chief Sales Officer, PickMyWork.

Although layoffs are becoming regular news with the oncoming dread of recession, big Indian IT companies and some big tech MNCs are still hiring. In Q3, PrepInsta, an Indian website for placement preparation, and a rising EdTech, brand displayed placement of over 18,716 students in November 2022 alone.

Read more: Indian jobseekers prefer SMBs despite low salaries & benefits

More than 350 companies have hired PrepInsta students, with an average package of 6.9 LPA. Hiring companies include some notable names such as TCS, Adobe, Intel, Microsoft Google, Infosys, Deloitte, Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm, McAfee, Tesla, Capgemini, Dream11, Cred, Tech Mahindra, Goldman Sach, and many others.

Aashay Mishra, Co-Founder of PrepInsta in a statement said, “Notably, the unstoppable recruitment drive comes at a time when tech firms have reduced their hiring efforts in anticipation of a tech slowdown and global recession.”