The Uberisation of Work

Pros and cons of the gig economy and what can we do to make things better

The so-called gig economy has grown exponentially over the past few years. In the UK it has doubled in size between 2016 and 2019 and it keeps growing and growing.
In the US, the freelance economy is growing three times faster than the traditional workforce. 36% of the workforce already participates in this new economy. If the trend continues, it’s expected that 50% of the population will participate in the gig economy by 2027.

This trend though is proving to be challenging for both workers and governments:

These are some pros and cons of the gig economy:

These are some example companies that participate in this type of economy:

Accommodation: Airbnb, HomeAway.

Delivery: Amazon Flex, DPD, Hermes, Yodel.

Grocery: Farmdrop, Amazon Fresh, Instacart.

Food: Deliveroo, DoorDash, Glovo, GrubHub, Just Eat, Postmates, Uber Eats.

Services: Upwork, Fiverr, Guru, Freelancer, Airtasker, TaskRabbit.

Transportation: Uber, Bolt, BlaBlaCar, Grab, Cabify, Careem, Lyft, Ola.

It is clear that this type of work will not only not disappear but it will keep growing every year. We can’t just make it illegal, because that would make these workers even more vulnerable, removing what might be the main source of income of some people.
What might be better is to create a hybrid between self-employment and traditional employment, so these workers have better protection and don’t have to buy the equipment needed themselves.

Another issue is that many people work on multiple things. One person can do freelance web design, drive for Uber and deliver food with Deliveroo. As these are unrelated activities, it adds extra complexity when doing your taxes as you have to keep separate accounts for each activity.
This should be highly simplified so workers of the gig economy can easily report their income and expenses without having to pay an accountant to do it for them.

The gig economy comes with many challenges but it’s here to stay as the statistics show. So we should find a way to integrate this into the economy but making sure workers are not left behind.

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