Everybody talks about the “gig economy,” but it’s notoriously hard to define or tally.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the official source of U.S. workforce statistics, “does not have a definition of the gig economy or gig workers,” it said in a 2019 blog post, and instead works to count up constituent categories like independent contractors, on-call workers, contingent and temporary workers and “electronically mediated workers” (i.e., those who find work though apps like Uber and DoorDash).
If there’s one theme that ties this diverse and growing segment of the labor force together, it’s a general lack of access to the kinds of benefits that many full-time employees take for granted, like health insurance, paid time off and retirement fund contributions.
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