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The Gig Economy is Actually Smaller Than It Used To Be, Labor Department Says (marketwatch.com)
The so-called gig economy is actually slightly smaller than it used to be, according to a new Labor Department report released Thursday that chronicles the jobs market in the age of Uber. From a report: In May 2017, the Labor Department counted 5.9 million people, or 3.8% of workers, in what it calls contingent jobs, which are those that the workers don't expect to last or that workers call temporary. In 2005, the last time the government looked into the issue, there were 4.1% of workers who classified themselves this way. "Taken at face value, the results indicate that the role of non-traditional work arrangements in the U.S. economy has remained largely unchanged during the past 20 years, even as excitement and media coverage of the growth of the 'gig economy' has increased," said Brian Schaitkin, senior economist for The Conference Board.
Oh crap, this fact doesn't fit the narrative I heard on TV from my favorite comedian. It must be false.
which are those that the workers don't expect to last or that workers call temporary.
Isn't that all jobs these days . . . ?
I've been with the same employer for more than 30 years, but change jobs every few years.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
3-5 years tops in the tech industry. Unless you do gov work your not getting a pension or even thinking of lasting there till retirement. They wouldn't keep you, but odds are good they wouldn't exist anyway...
..and everything that implies (i.e. you work for them, you're a whore -- and are treated like one). Prove me wrong.
Opaque 'company policies', intended to create a gulf between you and the people you're pimped out to.
Work for years, never get more money, living paycheck-to-paycheck? Tough shit, the 'customer' and the 'pimps' all point fingers at each other, claiming it's 'out of their hands', they can't pay you more.
Treated like a second-class (or third, or fourth..) citizen -- because you're a whore.
The 'gig economy' is just being a whore without a pimp. Basically, a streetwalker.
Fuck that shit. We need to get back to a culture of mutual respect and mutual loyalty between employers and employees.
The gig economy is ultimately not sustainable. For one thing, the gig economy cheapens real world skills. For example, the recent law school graduate that might be in an area saturated with lawyers might advertise basic services for dirt cheap just to get money coming in the door. But this amount of money comes nowhere near to both providing food and shelter and paying off the enormous student debt. For another, the worker participating in the gig economy must continue to chase micro jobs that pay peanuts in the hope of getting enough volume to make it remotely worthwhile. And, there are more service providers than there are people to consume them virtually ensuring that gig economy participants are competing for scraps. I kind of liken it to being the low ranking wolf in a pack - it's competition for scraps that still won't fill the belly.
That makes sense. People take "gigs" to tide them over until they can get a real job. But real jobs are more available now.
There was a bunch of people out of work a decade ago when rising gas prices made the housing bubble burst leading to the Econopocalypse that everyone likes to references with "These hard economic times". But those times are over. We've had steady (if slow) employment growth and now unemployment is creeping below 4%. Down into rates we haven't seen since the 1960's.
Anyone in the gig economy is underemployed (or has REALLY shitty job prospects). As times get better, fewer people need to do shitty gigs to make ends meet.
(And it's less... new. For a while, all those people were being paid with venture capitalist money)
Let's get those newborn babies and geriatrics into full-time employment. Remember, work is a moral obligation and we cannot let any human resources go unmaximized.
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to Meg economy?
... the tipping point.
Unemployment is at an all-time low.
That means lots of room for entry-level jobs.
Those jobs pay even if you're taking a smoke, shit, or a coffee break.
When jobs become scarce, the gif economy will expand again.
--
Even so, that number hasn't changed much in 20 years and is so low that it represents "noise."
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Few of the "gig" workers I know would show up on a survey like this. I am a gig tech worker. I don't have an LLC and am paid for tasks or work performed or for an end product via cash or check. From their point of view, I'm essentially unemployed though I make a living.
In the non-tech arena, I know many people in a more rural area who lost traditional jobs in the 2009-2012 period who never returned. They now cut down trees, perform handyman jobs, do construction under-the-table, etc. Their work is steadier than you might imagine with many working a job for a couple months at a time though being paid daily. Most will tell you they are doing better now than before and certainly enjoying their lives more. They would also indicate that they are unemployed. The state is showing decreased unemployment though the total employed is still much lower than pre-recession.
You have to work harder to evaluate the gig economy. Even for tech workers like me, it mostly works in the way day-labor markets work. Often, it is even worse. I know gig economy tech workers who work for a piece of the pie upon success instead of pay. The problem is, success happens one time in four or so.
Alternatively people aren't saying Lyft/Uber/etc are short term gigs, but instead viewed like a job. Since it's self-reported whether it's short term or not./p.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
So unemployment is actually 36%, not their phoney bullshit "historic low" 3.9%.
Right. But we don't expect our 5 year olds to go to work in coal mines anymore. The statistics don't count kids, the elderly, or the disabled. The unemployment statistics everyone throws about is trying to count people currently looking for a job. And that's important because they're all competing with each other. (other than tradesmen and professionals and specialists, whom should really look at statistics within their own niche). The part where the statistic is bullshit is that it ignores people who have given up. NEETs. It ignores a lot of people on bullshit disability. It doesn't account for underemployment like a mathmatics PHD handing people coffee or cutting edge vertex shader developers cranking out business SQL scripts.
REGARDLESS of the bullshit though, it's been consistent* bullshit so you can compare the number to other years. And yeah, the rate is low in historical terms.
* I dunno though, don't they change how they count now and then? When was the last big rule-change?
8 of 10 small businesses don't make it 18 months. A person deciding to try gig work is in essence a one person small business. As an individual who has been a self employed contract programmer for 30+ years. Getting over the hump is tough. Especially, sense most everything you think, turns out to be wrong or at the least needs a lot of adjustments ;) Also, it means long hours and requires one to be very versatile. And in addition the market and economic reality is always changing. Which requires one to always be asking what is next and re educating ones self for what will come in 6 months.
;)
Just my 2 cents
64% of the work-age population is working. I am one of the 36% but not included in the unemployment statistics.
I am a caucasian male with a computer engineering degree and a couple of decades of experience who had to leave the field for a few years. When I tried to return, age discrimination kept me from getting into a job even though I was willing to start at the bottom. I now do odd jobs related to my field off-the-books.
You say "historic low"; it should be made clear it's not a record low. The percentage of adults working, the labor force participation rate, was lower than this until the early 1980s. In the eighties, the number of people working significantly increased. It stayed relatively stable at that higher level for 26 years. Then it dropped very significantly from 2008-2016. It's been fairly stable for the last two years.
You can set a data range here to see the trends:
https://data.bls.gov/timeserie...
If you want to cram all of this into a headline or tweet, the headline would be:
Real unemployment fell under Obama, to pre-Reagan levels.
That should be:
Real unemployment rose under Obama, to pre-Reagan levels.
The percentage of people employed fell. If you want to call it "real unemployment", the amount of people UNemployed rose from 2008-2016, and has been stable for the last two years.
Gig Economy jobs suck - they're horrible jobs with low pay and high misery components - why shouldn't the Gig economy workforce be shrinking?
Perhaps - just perhaps, with more open jobs than workers looking for jobs, potential "Gig'ers" have better options than leasing a car from Uber, buying Uber's insurance, driving strangers all over town, and hoping to earn more than gas money for the privilege?
Ken
It's a bullshit number, but we've used the same bullshit number for the last dozen or so administrations.
Ken
"Not wanting to work" is a protected right the Republicans are attacking? Seriously?
Cutting off free gov't money so that able-bodied adults without dependent children makes sense to everyone UNLESS you are a politician and their votes are a big part of your re-election plans...
Ken
It could also mean that people are looking at "sharing" jobs as permanent.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Soubdsike you're part of the 3.8% (gig workers), but also content to commit fraud for a 50% larger paycheck.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
It could also mean that people are looking at "sharing" jobs as permanent.
It could also mean this research was sponsored by Uber.
Fast Federal Court and I.T.C. updates
... other than maybe folks are realizing that they really do NOT like be day labor, the way their grandparents and great-grandparents were, before unions came in in force.
But we don't need unions. We're happy to be fired at will, told to work "whatever it takes", even if that's 60, 70 or more hours a week, we don't need a life....