The Gig Economy Workforce Will Double In Four Years (recode.net) 64
The number of workers in the so-called gig economy will grow substantially in the coming years, according to a study by Intuit and Emergent Research. By 2021, the study finds, 9.2 million people are going to be working the frontline jobs at companies like Uber and Lyft. That number is projected to be 4.8 million this year. From a report: The rise in on-demand workers has been fueled largely by startups like Uber, TaskRabbit and Airbnb. It has also helped companies like Intuit, which makes tax software QuickBooks and TurboTax. The company's stock surged to an all-time high yesterday thanks to the gig economy. For context, there are currently more gig workers than people employed in the entire information sector (which includes publishing, telecommunication and data processing jobs) and IT services combined, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Also read: A recent piece on The New Yorker which talks about the lengths to which people are willing to go to survive in such jobs -- a horrifying culture that is often celebrated in those companies.
It ISN"T a real, primary job people... (Score:5, Insightful)
Gig work is a synonym with 1099 contracting.
There are plenty of us out here (especially in IT) that make very good livings doing contract work (I call each contract I have a 'gig').
Let's face it. If you are going to go this route, you need to put on your big boy pants, and think like an adult.
If you find a contract, and can negotiate a bill rate that will cover you wages, your insurance, your retirement and give you time to take off (no work hours no pay, remember?)...then you are working a gig that can be a primary source of income.
If you are working a contract that does not give you this type of bill rate, you either figure "this is not my customer", or you are doing this just as some side money to supplment your "real job" which mostly likely could be a W2 job.
But please, lets not get the govt to throw out the baby with the bathwater, MANY people for many years, have enjoyed working 1099. You are your own boss. You decide where your retirement investments are going. YOU decide what and how much insurance you need.
To do this on a full time basis, you have to be and adult, now how to budget, put money aside for periods between contracts (sometimes you may want to take a month off)....
But please...lets keep in mind, all these people are adults, and they can and should make their own decision and live with the consequences of such.
Re: It ISN"T a real, primary job people... (Score:2, Informative)
Many countries and their lawyers disagree with you. Uber and similar slime aren't new or innovative in their employment, quite the opposite. Maybe not so much in the US, but in other more civilized nations they seek to strip away centuries of hard and painfully won employment rights.
Re:It ISN"T a real, primary job people... (Score:5, Funny)
I was unaware of that. It's not as if you go on about it.
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The Gig Economy Workforce Will Double In Four Years
Jesus Christ, that's horrifying.
Re:It ISN"T a real, primary job people... (Score:5, Insightful)
To do this on a full time basis, you have to be and adult, now how to budget, put money aside for periods between contracts (sometimes you may want to take a month off)....
But please...lets keep in mind, all these people are adults, and they can and should make their own decision and live with the consequences of such.
the problem is that economic conditions are now forcing people to MAKE this their full time job. and severe cuts to healthcare and the general safety net are tightening the screws, not to mention the steamroller of automation coming down the pike. 1099 work might have been fine at one point, but it is NOW becoming a capitalists' wet dream and a regular worker's worst nightmare.
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the problem is that economic conditions are now forcing people to MAKE this their full time job. and severe cuts to healthcare and the general safety net are tightening the screws, not to mention the steamroller of automation coming down the pike. 1099 work might have been fine at one point, but it is NOW becoming a capitalists' wet dream and a regular worker's worst nightmare.
Your lack of the ability to form coherent sentence that use proper grammar and punctuation will serve you well in the "Gig Economy."
this is a troll. you have two glaring grammar errors in your own sentence. 3/10, go practice on Reddit or something.
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There is PLENTY of W2 work out there. You may have to move to where the job is, but that's nothing new in the past 3 decades or so....
Again, just because some people can do it, shouldn't mean you should regulate it out of existence for the majority of those who can and thrive doing it!!
The majority DON'T. (Score:2)
While there may be a few that do well enough to make it work, the majority do it only for a lack of other choices. You might be able to choose to forgo a regularized W-2 job, but not many others can. For most people, being able to refuse work is firmly in the dream category.
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There is a HUGE contracting industry, particularly in the field of I.T. that would like to argue with you on that.....an industry that has been very healthy and profitable for many decades.
A huge benefit-dodging industry. (Score:2)
Yet you are wrong.
Such industries rely on the majority being unable to choose an alternative to their uncertainty or benefit dodging practices.
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Re: It ISN"T a real, primary job people... (Score:3)
Exactly. Gig economy is not good or bad for people who are in ot, but it is a definitely sign of increased human force redundancy. Moving from an old school taxi company, maintaining a standard of cars to a makeshift guerilla drivers with assorted quality cars is a bad deal.
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Takes two to tango. Uber's management has to do the same. If someone pushes the button on their phone and nobody comes to pick them up, then Uber is done.
Re:It ISN"T a real, primary job people... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a rabbit hole. Sure you and some other's moonlight and fine. But for other's it's a job without benefits. Interestingly this is how employment used to be in the early 1900s and was exactly how unions came into being. Train workers were gig workers. They worked when called, and the rest of the time flopped in the company owned hotels along the line, drinking up their paychecks at the company saloon. They might not find connecting work that returned them home to families for weeks at a time. Safety declined both because workers were dissolute but also because of high turnover and the cadre of people willing to accept the conditions of wages wasn't the best. The Unions entered not so much for good wages but to create reliable work, assurances of return home, closing of saloons, and safe working conditions. Train owners resisted but were eventually persuaded by improved on-time and fewer accidents. As the unions grew they gained the power to strike across the industry and fought for wages and job security that assured the job was somethign one could do for a career not just in one's youth with no responisbilities. It made the job livable.
So yes moonlighting is a time honored way for industrious people to get ahead. But when a whole industry is based on it, it is not healthy for the nation.
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A flop house and a saloon
My favorite Uber drivers are the drunken ones who tossed and turned on an uncomfortable mattress the night before, too.
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NO...I do NOT moonlight 1099 work, it is a very profitable career for me in IT. 6 figures are easy bill rates. Yes, out of that you pay your insurance, your vacation/sick time, and retirement....and save for times when you are between contracts, or want to take a month or so off.
This "über" type gig economy is very new....the traditional 1099 contractor I talk about has been around for a VERY long time, in fact, in IT...as you get older
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I've seen IT contracts that pay as much as $90 an hour. Granted they're short term (i.e. 6 months) but that's more money than most people make in an entire year, which means you could take the rest of the year off if you wanted to, or go find another contract.
It's actually quite common to find IT people that have multiple jobs that lasted less than a year, and it's normal because many prefer contract work.
Typical contract I get offered is about $50 an hour, though I personally am not interested in contract
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In the IT field, if you can pretty readily find $125-$175/hr bill rates.
It goes up from there if you are a US citizen and can get into government contracting...and those are often for quit LONG terms.
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You are speaking of a minority that do well. (Score:2)
Perhaps we need to throw out the baby with the bathwater and the rest of the family inside, since contracting is primarily used as a benefit dodge. Kill it and you bring back some sanity to the job market.
In addition, retirement/benefits do not scale well at the individual level - unlike traditional regularized work.
Really? (Score:2)
Seems to me that Uber is pushing for automated cars to avoid having to pay drivers. That leaves the backend maint and infrastructure people and those are not gig based.
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Unless they decide to continue to permit their current model, where individuals purchase their own automated vehicles and register them with the service to control them. Then the owner is still responsible for maintenance and such. I wouldn't be surprised if Uber tried to do this.
Until it crashes (Score:4, Informative)
It will continue to rise steadily until all of a sudden, overnight, automated vehicles are approved and it crashes virtually overnight. People going into this sure as hell better have a backup plan.
Gig - a cute term to fool the plebes. (Score:2, Informative)
The business community sells this as "being your boss" or "being in business for yourself" or whatever to sell you the idea of being an independent contractor.
Because that way they can pass on the overhead costs onto the worker as well as the business risk. See, most folks under the delusion that they'll work 40+ hours a week and there will plenty of work.
Nope.
I don't care what you do, there will be dry spells. Now, do these "gig" companies allow the worker to to work for other businesses as well at the sa
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He's right, you're wrong.
https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
Alternative-factoid Newspeak (Score:5, Insightful)
The Gig economy will double in four years
I.e. there will be a whole lot more unemployment in 4 years than today, and most of you won't find another job and will be forced to scrimp by on whatever money you can make doing odd jobs, cleaning toilets, driving for uber, or wiping the ass of the 1%. Enjoy your new world order.
The IRS used to require more than one contract. (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been a self employed contractor for over 25 years and I recall back in 90s that the IRS used to require that you did work for more than just one company when sub contracting work, otherwise you were considered an employee if you worked exclusively for one company despite having your own insurance and tools. I made sure to sub work from several companies until I finally became a real contractor and had my own customers. How do uber and the drivers get around this? They only work for one company. Uber could end up getting fined and having to pay FICA portions of the employees wages.
Did the rules change? Is the IRS selective in what industries they police?
Stay tuned! Same bat channel, same bat time
Well now, this is terrifying (Score:3)
Let's redfine the gig economy... (Score:4, Insightful)
One of the most insightful comment in "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" [amzn.to] by Robert Kiyosaki was when Rich Dad said: "Why climb the corporate ladder when you can own it?"
If you're working for a corporation and expect the corporation to make you rich, you're doing it wrong.
A corporate job should pay the bills while you nurture a side business that will eventually replace your income from the corporate job. Work as an owner, not an employee.
Re:Let's redfine the gig economy... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Well GAWSH, start a million dollar company, why didn't I think of that?? That's one of those things that is easy to say but almost impossible to do.
If you're making $1M per year in a corporate job, you should focus on investing. Otherwise, having a corporate job that pays the bills will make it easy to start a side business.
Re:Let's redfine the gig economy... (Score:4, Informative)
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For everyone who starts a side company and succeeds, there are 100 that fail [...]
The faster you fail, the faster you can find that successful business idea. You may have to fail 10, 50 or 100 times before you find success. Each failure is a learning process for the next time attempt. When I had my bankruptcy trustee hearing in 2011, an older gentleman astonished the trustee by being on his fifth business bankruptcy in 50+ years. As old as he was, he was probably starting his sixth business.
Re:Let's redfine the gig economy... (Score:4, Informative)
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Does this come before or after the $.99 ebooks and the blog advertising money?
Those are two ways I make money. Can you name the 28 other revenue streams that I have?
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Yes, the 28 empty bottles under your futon you're hoarding for the 5 cent deposit?
That would count as one revenue stream.
Re:Let's redfine the gig economy... (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the most insightful comment in "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" [amzn.to] by Robert Kiyosaki was when Rich Dad said: "Why climb the corporate ladder when you can own it?"
If you're working for a corporation and expect the corporation to make you rich, you're doing it wrong.
A corporate job should pay the bills while you nurture a side business that will eventually replace your income from the corporate job. Work as an owner, not an employee.
If you believe your "side business" can compete with people that quit their corporate jobs to commit completely to their business, then you are completely delusional. Even most people that dedicate themselves to their new business will unfortunately end up seeing it fail. Unless of course by "side business" you mean "rich daddy" buying a successful small business for you to play with
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If you believe your "side business" can compete with people that quit their corporate jobs to commit completely to their business, then you are completely delusional.
A side business is small, manageable and produces cash. The real trick is to scale up the business and hire people to run it for you without your involvement. You want to become a business owner and not an employee of your own business.
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Right up to the point, where you find out that you've been signing required job contracts for years that say the company owns everything you'll ever make, some $RIGHTSHOLDER demands payment for some obvious part of your business, you got priced out of the market by incumbent players willing to take a hit to get rid of you (or prevent you from getting established in the first place), you can't get a loan to start the business due to it being "a bad investment" that doesn't give ROI next quarter, or some legislative change happens that effectively gives the incumbents a legal monopoly, and forbids you from participating. (OK, sure you can participate, but the bar to entry has been moved much higher should you still choose to reach it.)
That sounds bad. Try a different business model next time.
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Oh wow, a 20 year old "self help" book written by a hack fraud that went bankrupt is your font of wisdom? You're fucked. Financially, mentally, and physically.
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Oh wow, a 20 year old "self help" book written by a hack fraud that went bankrupt is your font of wisdom?
Taken with a grain of salt. If you want to shoot the messenger without listening to the message that's your business. You're missing out on a lot of good insights.
You're fucked. Financially, mentally, and physically.
I'm better off today than I was ten years ago before the Great Recession.
The new 9 to 5 (Score:2)
The Problem (Score:5, Insightful)
America, unlike a lot of the rest of the first world, has tied most of the social safety net--retirement, insurance, etc-to private employers instead of the state for the past few decades.
Setting aside any discussion of whether this is a good or bad way to do things, a dramatic shift from a employer-based workforce to a gig-based workforce without a commensurate redirection of the safety net is cause for considerable concern.
The gig economy doesn't pay well enough to make up the difference in lost benefits for the worker. That's one of the big reasons employers like it--it's a lot cheaper. This is gonna kick us in the teeth as a country as gig workers start to age, get hurt, get sick, and need care.
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It's rather distasteful stepping over them to get into one's limo, but as long as they don't revolt I doubt the 1% would give a shit.
Kill it with fire. (Score:2)
Since it is abused more than it is well-used, better to just end the practice.