A gig is a slang for a job that lasts for a specified period of time. A gig worker is hired to do a gig. He could be a freelancer or an independent contractor. He is hired on the basis of the completion of that task or project. He could be a contract-based hire.

In the IT industry, of late, there is high attrition — the employees leave the employer. There is a demand for full-stack developers, data scientists and cloud engineers. Thus in IT industry, many startups, and small and medium sized firms hire gig workers. Full-time employees affect profitability, and hence there is a shift to gig hiring. There is a need to do gig hiring in high-skill jobs. It helps the organisations to manage their costs and human resources.

India has a manpower pool of STEM graduates. Besides, it produces 1.5 million engineers every year. The global scale shortage of manpower could be met through this pool. Gig tech talent will have a crucial role in meeting the growing demand of manpower globally.

Gig workers have a bright future as opportunities for contractual work improve across IT, telecom, healthcare sectors. 5G penetration and digitisation too boost the gig economy.