Frontline industry creates 8 million jobs; logistics & mobility record highest salaries: Report

The frontline industry has created 8 million jobs, and logistics & mobility, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), integrated facility management (IFM) & IT and e-commerce have reported some of the highest average monthly salaries in FY 2022, according to a report.

Frontline workers are those within essential industries who must physically report for work.

Logistics & mobility offers the highest average monthly salary of Rs 26,484, the report, Frontline Index 2022, by HRMS firm BetterPlace said. The average monthly salary of frontline workers increased from Rs 21,664 in FY21 to Rs 22,800 in FY22.

“While minimum wage remains more or less the same, there's no change until the government changes. What has changed in the post-pandemic world is that companies have started giving benefits, including better stay and food,” said Pravin Agarwala, Co-Founder and Group CEO, BetterPlace.

Frontline workers include all blue and grey collar workers, farmers and construction labour.

Q2, Q3 witness a sharp increase in job vacancies

In FY22, Q2 and Q3 witnessed a sharp increase in job vacancies as the economy started to open up, post the second wave of COVID-19. Job vacancies recorded on BetterPlace’s portal are an indicator of the job demand trend.

April 2021 saw an upsurge in vacancies for frontline workers, while June 2021 saw a decline. This was due to the second wave of COVID-19 that hit India from April- May and the recovery path it took in June and July.

The maximum number of vacancies were seen in December 2021 and January 2022, with a minute fall during the latter part of Q4. This can be attributed to the scare of the third wave of COVID-19 hitting the economy.

There is growth in jobs like delivery executive, driver, data entry/back office, BPO/customer care, field sales, business development, and retail/counter sales.

Youth dominates frontline workforce

Approximately 72 percent of the frontline workforce is in the 20-30 age group and the median age of a frontline worker is 25 years. Interestingly, a major chunk of the younger population is taking up frontline jobs in the gig economy.

Gen Z (19-25 years) makes up for 48 percent of the gig workforce and is open to the concept of learning while earning. They are willing to take up freelancing and gig opportunities alongside studies, owing to the flexibility of work provided by the gig model.

“It is the easiest path to take when you are 18-19 years old. You don't have to come and report at eight o'clock in the morning till five o'clock in the evening. Also, after working for two or three years, everyone starts looking at upskilling themselves,” Agarwala said.

Only 20.3 percent of the frontline workers across industries belonged to the age bracket of 30-40 years. According to the report, since some of the high-demand frontline jobs like delivery boys, technicians, operations executives and field sales require on-ground and active physical labour, it leads to a lower participation rate by middle-aged employees.

As for the age bracket of 40-50 years, only 6.3 percent were actively working across industries in frontline jobs and only a minute 1.7 percent of the frontline labour workforce is attributed to the age bracket of 50-60 years.

Workers staying in hometowns and states

The report highlighted that the pandemic has made more workers stay in their hometowns and states to work in gig jobs with increased local employment opportunities.

Sixty percent of the frontline workforce belongs to Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. Maharashtra is the highest contributor at 23.1 percent.

Further, 75 percent of the total frontline workforce belongs to the top five supply cities - Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR, Chennai and Bengaluru.

Inter-state migration has increased from 6.4 percent in FY21 to 6.9 percent in FY22. This is just the net movement of workers. Post the pandemic, the report said rural to urban migration is probably at one of its lowest ebbs. Government schemes like MGNREGA and PM Rozgar Yojana have helped people earn a livelihood closer to home when the pandemic hit, it added.

Attrition rising

Retail & QSR (quick-service restaurant) showed the highest average monthly attrition rate of 19 percent in FY2022, followed by e-commerce and BFSI

“Initially, people look only for a job. But slowly as their connections increase, they look for opportunities to learn and earn more. That is the reason why we see attrition in retail slightly higher, compared to other sectors,” Agarwala says.

Besides, the hectic nature of jobs and easy replaceability of workers can be the two major reasons why attrition is high in these industries, the report adds.

Lack of diversity

Almost 97 percent of the frontline workers are males. The report highlighted that 47.5 percent of the total women in the frontline workforce took up jobs in e-commerce, while IFM & IT came second, with 39.5 percent, followed by logistics & mobility at 5.3 percent.

Some of the most sought-after roles are tele-sales executives, data analysts, customer service, field survey associates, and content moderators.

This report is based on a sample of 2.8 million profiles of individuals working with over 3,100 large organisations. The data considered have been collected from April 2021 to March 2022.