The growth in demand for frontline workers in the Financial Year 2023-24 seems to be muted due to macroeconomic challenges, a new survey report, released on Monday, reveals.
According to the latest BetterPlace’s Frontline Index Report, the total demand for frontline jobs decreased by 17.5%. In FY23, 6.6 million frontline jobs were created in India as compared to 8 million in FY22. The drop can largely be attributed to global macroeconomic headwinds.
In FY22, e-commerce was the highest contributor to frontline worker employment. The dominance of the e-commerce sector has been replaced by the logistics & mobility and IFM & IT sector which together contribute to more than 61% of the new jobs created.
However, e-commerce continues to be the highest employer of women frontline workers in FY23, contributing to 64% of the total women workers employed.
Demand created by e-commerce has fallen by 52% since last year, but it is still the second-largest employer, contributing to 33% of the total jobs.
Women participation ratio doubled
The report further highlighted that the women participation ratio in the workforce doubled between FY22 and FY23. It increased from 3% to 6% between FY22 and FY23.
According to the survey, 88% of those women felt fully or somewhat supported by their families to join the workforce.
The average monthly salary for women frontline workers in FY23 was 20.5% lower than the industry average. The gap between youths and older cohorts is smaller for women frontline workers, with 44% of them belonging to the 20–30-age category and 37% belonging to the 30–40-age category.
The survey revealed that the participation of youth declined by 8% between FY22 and FY23, while participation of workers between 30 and 40 increased by 25%.
Over 80% of the frontline workers are adequately educated, having completed either their graduation or high school diploma.
The average monthly salaries for frontline workers decreased marginally by 4.5% to reach around Rs 21,700 in FY23.