Coming to a Retailer Near You!
Uber, Lyft, SnagWork are all part of the rapidly growing gig economy movement to employ freelance, or contingent, workers for short term work.
With the US unemployment rate at a 17 year low, contingent employment has become popular for both workers – because it provides flexibility, supplemental income, and work life balance – and employers – because it provides flexibility to hire when necessary, without the long term costs of a full time employee. According to Intuit’s 2020 report the trend toward the gig economy is real and growing , “Today, roughly 25-30 percent of the US workforce is contingent”, and “by 2020 40% of the US workforce will be contingent”. One of the driving forces behind the gig economy are consumer technology platforms, like Uber and SnagWork, which provide easy access to “gigs” or short term freelance jobs from a phone. According to Pew Research Center, “Nearly 1 in 4 Americans now earn money from the digital platform economy”, and retailers have begun to take notice.
