Gig economy will be shaped by policies, possible Obamacare rollback in 2017
Golub cobbles together a living chauffeuring passengers through the ride-hailing app
"I enjoy the hustle so much more than the grind of full-time work," said Golub, 24, who lives with a roommate in the
Enjoy it or not, more people are hustling.
A growing share of the
In the meantime, private research has shown significant growth in alterative arrangements that at best offer workers flexibility and at worst deprive them of economic security.
Nearly 16 percent of workers were engaged in alternative work arrangements in 2015, a jump from 10 percent in 2005, according to research released this year by
All of the net employment growth from 2005 to 2015 occurred in alternative work arrangements, the researchers concluded, suggesting there was no net employment growth in traditional jobs.
That research only counted work that was considered someone's main job. If you include moonlighters who have traditional jobs and hustle on the side, the freelance population this year was estimated at a third of the workforce, or 55 million Americans, an increase of 2 million people since 2014, according to a survey released in October by the nonprofit
"Many people expect that by 2020 to 2025 up to 50 percent of the workforce will get some income from independent labor," said
Whether policy will catch up to the labor shifts is a question experts will watch in 2017. A major conversation point has been how to develop portable benefits that give gig economy workers access to retirement plans, unemployment insurance and paid sick leave even as they move from job to job.
"I think we'll start to see concrete proposals this year," Sharp said.
The Affordable Care Act, which allows individuals to buy insurance on health care exchanges, has been credited with freeing people from the reliance on employers for health insurance. So the law's fate under President-elect
"If it is replaced, the gig economy will take a big hit," Kropp said.
With Trump's selection of fast-food executive
Puzder, CEO of
The potential reasons for the recent growth of the gig economy range from necessity, for those who lost their jobs during the Great Recession, to workers' desire for flexibility and efforts by companies to cut costs.
The rise in platforms such as Airbnb and Uber also have made it easier for people to transact with customers and turn their homes and cars into income streams, though they represent a minuscule fraction of the growing contingent workforce. And their growth, while still rapid, appears to be slowing.
In
Use of online labor platforms grew 83 percent in
Rather than represent the future of work, data suggests online platforms offer handy side gigs when things get tough. Chicagoans in June earned a monthly average of
"Without Uber I might be in the line for food stamps," Izquierdo said.
About 48 percent of online labor platform users in
"It is a new and easily accessible form of work, but people are treating this as a secondary source of income," said
The sharpest rise in alternative work arrangements was among people hired out through contract companies and among older workers, aged 55 to 75, according to the
That's consistent with what
Companies experiencing a shortage of workers in the science, technology, engineering and math fields are bringing baby boomers back from retirement to be contingent employees, offering flexibility and time off for their expertise, Carroll said.
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