Recently, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) conducted a
study on the “gig” economy and found several comparisons to both lower-income
countries and pre-Industrial Revolution United States and Europe.
A “gig” economy refers to a market in which temporary
positions and short-term engagements are common, whether the workers be
independent contractors, temporary workers, self-employed, part-timers,
freelancers and free agents.
Probably the most well-known “gig” company today is Uber,
alongside Lyft and TaskRabbit, who all refrain from hiring full-time employees,
but rather only hire independent contractors as workers. Jobs such as these may
be flexible at times, allowing employees the freedom to set their own schedules
and such; however, there are downsides, all of which drip down to the primary
concern of every “gig” worker: no predictable earnings or hours.
McKinsey found at the end of their study that approximately
one-quarter of the working-age population (U.S. & EU-15) is consolidated in
the “gig” workforce with Uber and its digital peers. The actual numbers were
between 20% and 30% or 160 million people or so.
Click Here to Read the Full Article: http://qz.com/806117/uber-and-the-gig-economy-look-a-lot-like-the-pre-industrial-economy/
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