Increased manufacturing activity coupled with a smaller migrant workforce has resulted in a hike in the daily wage rates of temp workers in India, reports Times of India. Industrial clusters are making do with 80% of migrant workers coming back after the reverse migration seen during the lockdown. As a result, daily wages have gone up from nearly INR 250 (USD 3.32) to INR 350-400 (USD 4.64-5.30). R Ramamoorthy, a former president of Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, a confederation of small businesses, said, "Most former workers have returned. However, there is still a 20% gap. This is due to those workers who are aware of their demand and have moved to other metros rather than return to tier-1 and -2 cities.”

“There is now a 20-30% shortage of skilled labourers in the factories in tier-2 cities. Due to the pandemic, wages were stunted in 2020," Yeshab Giri, director of staffing at Randstad India said. "Prior to that, in 2018, the western region had seen a big surge in wages of workers which had more than doubled to INR 12,000 (USD 159.15) in Maharashtra. Minimum wages had not been revised for a few years. So, there was a sudden jump. But since then, it has been growing at 8-10% every year."