Gen X is preferred over millennials as freelancers, says a survey

According to the latest survey by TimesJobs titled ‘Is gig economy the future of India’s workforce’, it is found that people are preferring freelance jobs over full time jobs.

About 45% HR professionals said that more men are hired as freelancers as compared to women as per the TimesJobs survey. 36% of industry leaders say that 20-30% of the workforce 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.

Even 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.

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.

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.