Milwaukee/Mumbai: India has emerged as the top fifth position in contingent workforce engagement, reflecting an optimal environment for use of contingent labor, as per ManpowerGroup Solutions’ Contingent Workforce Index (CWI). India has made significant improvements in Contingent Workforce Index rising through the ranks from 24 in 2015 to 5 in 2016 globally.

In its fourth edition of the report, New Zealand leads for the second consecutive year while Singapore (2), the Philippines (3), Israel(4) are other countries found places among top five. The report mentioned that overall these top five markets are fairly well balanced in terms of Availability, Cost Efficiency, Regulation and Productivity in the contingent workforce management. ManpowerGroup has claimed since its inception in 2013, Fortune 500 companies and regional organizations alike have used the CWI to evaluate their global workforce strategy.

The United States and Canada fell from the top five global markets, dropping to sixth and seventh from second and third, respectively.

“Over the past year, we saw a shift in priorities that resulted in a change in the 2016 weighting attributed to workforce size,” said Kate Donovan, Senior Vice President of ManpowerGroup Solutions. “Employers are feeling the talent shortage. Availability of contingent workers, as well as skilled labor, is gaining prominence. As a result, we saw countries like China and India re-emerge into the top ten markets for availability of talent. ManpowerGroup Solutions uses this tool to advise clients of the best countries in which to expand their operations based on specific criteria related to the workforce. The volatility across global labor markets makes this tool more valuable than ever.”

“Compared to last year, the 2016 CWI allows for a greater influence of skilled contingent workforce availability when it comes to determining locations for growing business,” said Raleen Gagnon, Director of Market Intelligence for ManpowerGroup Solutions. “The increased focus on Availability has resulted in concessions on lower wage markets, as employers are considering non-wage based labor costs such as benefits and taxes, due to their increasing impact on the total cost of labor.”

In the Asia pacific region, the big change in the APAC region is the movement of Singapore, the Philippines and India back into the top five in 2016.