6.6 million frontline jobs created in FY23, Women participation ratio doubled in a year: BetterPlace Frontline Index Report

– Logistics and Mobility replaced e-commerce as the largest contributor to frontline jobs at 45%

– IFM&IT offered the highest paying jobs at an average salary of INR 25,700, an increase of 17% as compared to last year

Having seen a rapid growth in demand for frontline workers in FY22 with the economy opening up, the growth seems to have muted in FY23 due to macroeconomic challenges. According to BetterPlace’s Frontline Index Report, 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.

This report is based on the data collected by the BetterPlace platform from April 2022 to March 2023. A sample of more than 3 million data points was used for the analysis and inferences. The data provides a detailed view of the hiring, demand, attrition, migration, salary and upskilling trends among the frontline workforce of India.

Commenting on the launch of the report, Pravin Agarwala, Co-founder and Group CEO at BetterPlace, said, “The frontline workforce ecosystem seems to be one of the most dynamic cohorts in India. They are the first ones to feel the impact of external economic environments. The macroeconomic headwinds have forced enterprises in India and Southeast Asia to rethink their hiring practices, which resulted in a decline in demand for frontline workers this year. There are, however, some positive offshoots of this trend that strengthen the case for tech integration. We are seeing rising gigification of the workforce, which has led to improvement in the women participation ratio. This has created a need for tech solutions which can handle these fast-changing dynamics while at the same time improving productivity and retention.

Hence, it becomes imperative for us and tech startups like ours to help enterprises with solutions which cater to their needs and also help them create an ecosystem which is both equitable and sustainable for all workers and enterprises. If we are able to achieve this two-pronged goal, we would be able to unlock the next level of growth for the economy.”

Some key insights from the report include:

• Demand for frontline workers in India dropped by 17.5% to 6.6 million in FY23
  • Logistics & Mobility have replaced e-commerce as the highest employment industry for frontline workers in FY23. The total demand created by Logistics & Mobility increased by more than 111% between FY22 and FY23
  • IFM&IT was the fastest-growing industry in terms of demand for frontline jobs, growing by a whopping 139% between FY22 and FY23
  • While demand created by e-commerce has fallen by 52% since last year, it is still the second-largest employer, contributing to 33% of the total jobs

• Women participation ratio in the workforce doubled between FY22 and FY23
  • Women participation ratio has increased from 3% to 6% between FY22 and FY23.
  • This is largely due to the changing perception among families. According to our surveys, 88% of women felt fully or somewhat supported by their families to join the workforce.
  • However, the average monthly salaries for women frontline workers in FY23 was 20.5% lower than the industry average.
  • The only industries bucking the trend were Manufacturing and Logistics & Mobility, which had 36% and 20% higher average monthly salaries for women as compared to the industry average respectively.
  • While demand for workers in the e-commerce sector decreased at an industry level, this sector’s demand for women frontline workers increased by almost 36% as compared to FY22, and it continues to be the fastest-growing industry for women frontline workers.
  • 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.

• 67% of the migratory population of frontline workers belong to Karnataka, UP, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and West Bengal
  • Karnataka replaced Maharashtra to become the largest contributor of frontline workers in FY23, contributing more than 16% of the total workforce
  • 62% of the migratory frontline workforce came to Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu to get access to jobs
  • 75% of the frontline workforce worked in cities like Bengaluru, Dehi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Chennai

• Youth contributed the largest to frontline jobs at 66% but their participation is slowly decreasing
  • Participation of youth in the workforce declined by 8% between FY22 and FY23, while participation of workers between 30-40 increased by 25% in the same period
  • More than 80% of the frontline workers are adequately educated, having completed either their graduation of high school diploma

• Average monthly salaries for frontline workers decreased marginally by 4.5% to reach INR 21,700 in FY23
  • IFM&IT not only recorded the highest monthly average salaries at INR 25,700, but salaries in this sector increased by 17% as compared to FY22. This sector was closely followed by BFSI and Logistics & Mobility sector, offering salaries of INR 22,000 and INR 21,800 respectively
  • While Logistics and Mobility contributed the highest to the demand for frontline workers, average monthly salaries for this sector decreased by 18%

• Attrition peaks post-festive season, reaching 23%
  • The average monthly attrition rate for frontline workers in FY23 stood at 15%, with the peaks reaching 23% during the month of November, at the end of the festive season
  • Industries with a high demand seem to have a high rate of attrition. The largest employer of FY23, Logistics & Mobility, had the highest monthly attrition rate at 22%, growing by 83% as compared to FY22. This industry was followed by e-commerce and IFM&IT, which recorded an attrition rate of 19% and 15% respectively
  • In FY22, Retail and QSR recorded the highest attrition rate. However, in FY23, this sector decreased its attrition rate by 21%. The high attrition rate last year for this sector could be attributed to the boom in the retail sector, which seems to have muted this year

• Sign-ups for upskilling courses grew by a whopping 194% between FY22 and FY23
  • With the lower intent to hire, enterprises are training their existing workers to take on larger roles. The time spent on learning has increased by more than 165% between April 2022 and March 2023
  • The Government’s push towards skilling during the budget resulted in multiple enterprises investing in skilling their employees. This resulted in a peak of 36% in new users on our platform between January and February 2023

About BetterPlace

Founded in 2015, BetterPlace is Asia’s largest global HCM SaaS platform that manages everything related to the frontline segment end-to-end. The company has over 30 million workers on the platform and over 1100 companies as clients. Being a full-stack platform solution, it solves for the hire to retire needs of the frontline workforce from jobs, insurance, gigs, and to benefits. BetterPlace has also launched their B2C platform Rocket which partners with enterprises to upskill frontline workers free of cost so that more frontline workers are job ready and enterprises have access to pre-trained frontline workforce.