A new labor market survey by the business analytics firm MBO Partners found that the number of gig workers[1] in the United States surged in 2021, from 38 million to 51 million workers—a 34 percent increase. While it is far from clear if that growth will continue once the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, a slew of other recent studies indicate that the gig economy will likely continue to employ somewhere between a quarter to a third of workers for the foreseeable future.

Whether gig work is good or bad for workers and our economy—and, more importantly, who reaps the benefits from it—often depends on the type of gig work in question and on specific factors that dictate a person’s individual bargaining power in the labor market.

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