(PTI) Over 52 percent of gig workers or contract employees feel that their work environment makes it challenging for them to upskill or find new job opportunities, according to a report.

However, over 52 per cent of gig workers said the gig working environment makes it difficult to upskill or find new job opportunities, it added.

“Only about one in three individuals we spoke to had clear plans for shifting jobs in the near future. This was despite the vast majority reportedly working overtime in their current shifts and having no resources for up-skilling at the jobs they held,” said the report.

If they are not upskilled and placed in good organisations with better income, it leads to underutilised human capital within the country, it stated.

The CIIE.CO report is based on a survey among 4,070 platform based gig workers, including the high earning knowledge workers and daily-wage agricultural workers.

The report further said that 50 per cent of platform workers today find their jobs through traditional referral networks despite 80 per cent having internet access.

“In many ways, gig workers are channels through which the old and new India interact. We’re in 2022, it is about time that each of us has access to our own data. Enabling gig workers to own and use their employment, financial, health etc. data will improve their well-being and unlock the growth of both traditional and new economies,” CIIE.CO Partner – Insights Supriya Sharma said.

Being powered by declining internet and hardware costs, technology-based platforms are becoming a lifeline for employment at a time when traditional sectors dwindle in size and reach, it said.

Empowering the gig worker with owning and using their own data would improve her wellbeing, including job prospects and financial health, the report added.