Gig Economy: Future of work?

Development of the platform economy is the fruit of COVID-19 pandemic. Although, the post COVID 19 period disrupted the global economy in various ways but it left the deep imprints in the employment market. It changed the mannerism of the work at global level. With the new limitation of people moving out of the house gave birth to numerous innovations and new methods of transacting among people. It added fuel to the growth of tech innovations and today, what we are witnessing is the birth and accelerated growth of AI. As the human labour became global, it also changed the definition and relationship of employer and employee. That’s where the concept of the gig economy flourished came into wide lime light. However, the concept of gig economy is not a new concept but it was used previously in the domain of the music and in the farm field in India too. With the fast progression of the technology and tech research the it became widely accepted used and globally accepted by the people. Thus, this fundamental transformation in global labour markets amplified the rise of the digital and platform economy. This research paper throws the light on the progress, socio-economic impact of gig workers and its features in the post-pandemic era, with specific concentrated analysis with respect to the Gujarat State and Indian economy. The paper relies on the secondary data collected from authentic government reports, ILO publications, academic studies, and field-based research, and also the paper explores how digital platforms have emerged over a period of time and restructuring the employ-employee relationships, worker’s profiles, and labour protections laws, etc. This paper gives insights into crucial research and policy gaps, including availability of sufficient data, lesser coverage of rural gig workers, and the need for demographic and geographical analysis.